I know my helping verbs!

This is for you, Neil!

My father-in-law is a masterful teacher. Next year, he will have been teaching in six different decades! One day Marty was talking to him about this upcoming school year and asked, "Do you still do this in your English classes...." And then rattled off this big string of words. It was the coolest thing I'd ever heard! It caught me off guard and I laughed until my stomach hurt! I HAD to learn it. :) Neil organized all the helping verbs into a rhythmic, poetic phrase which made it really easy to learn. So, thanks Neil!

This is my DREAM

I think about this a lot.

Someday....

I want to own one of these...

Where we sell lots of this:

And these....

My store will have one of these...

And one of those...

And will offer these....

Unfortunately, I have none of this...

Or that,

And I want to spend all day with them.

So for now, I guess I'll just keep dreaming.

The effects of a new bed

Bake-aholic

I like to cook.

I don't so much like to bake.

I hate measuring cups and I hate sticking things in the oven and just having to hope they turn into what they are supposed to. And I hate following directions. I didn't like to cook until I learned to be creative.

Enter the cake mix cookies.

Most people I have talked to already know this recipe, but it is fabulous. You can take pretty much any cake mix and add two eggs, 1/3 cup of oil, roll it into balls, press them down with something, and stick them in a 350 dgree oven for seven or eight minutes. They are soft and moist and delicious!

Lately I have been making a LOT of cookies. I feel like lately people have been really nice and doing a lot of random favors for us and sometimes the only thing I can think of to do is give them food. So I've been having lots of fun being creative with these cookies. A few of my favorites have been:
-Devil's food cake mix with chocolate chips
-Devil's fook cake, rolling the balls of dough in cocoa powder (like a truffle - I guss I needed a chocolate fix)
-Lemon cake mix with powdered sugar on top
-Strawberry cake mix with coconut, nuts, and a few chocolate chunks
Next up: Rocky road cookies, and I want to have some fun with a spice cake.

A tribute to my childhood

Last month when I went to Utah, I borrowed some movies from my parents. They were mostly cheesy 80s cartoons that I watched over and over as a kid. I took them for Brynn to watch and have been having these fun trips down memory lane. Among them are:

The Care Bears,

Cinderella (the Rodgers and Hammerstein version),

But one of the BEST movies to come out of the 80s?

THE CHIPMUNK ADVENTURE!!!

So, here's to my childhood! (And maybe yours, too....Corey and Justin?)

Tis the Season

For posting anniversary announcements. :) Most of my friends got married in the summer, too. August 4th Marty and I celebrated FOUR wonderful years together. In the time we've been married, we have graduated, started a career, moved to a new state, lived in three different houses, and had two beautiful children. It's been quite a ride! Thanks for everything, Marty! I love you!

I sure hate coming up with titles...

...When my posts are always so random. There are only so many times I can name a post "Random" or "Update."

Anyway, we are having a great summer! Marty started teaching school again back on July 30th - they start so early out here. But I think it will be worth it to have two weeks off in the fall and spring, not to mention an awesome Christmas vacation. Anyway, he LOVES Queen Creek High Seminary!!! He loves the people he works with, he loves working closer to home, but he especially LOVES HIS STUDENTS! These youth are so amazing. I've had a chance to know some of his students pretty well working with the Young Women and teaching piano, and I love them all to bits and pieces. We are very excited for this school year.



Brynn is growing and changing so much. The last couple of days I have been trying to spend every second I can with her. The older she gets and the more she changes, the more I start to worry that soon she won't really want to play with me anymore, and that will be a SAD day. The other day Brynn was talking to the secretary at Marty's school and she just rattled off this big long sentence about how I was sick, but now I feeling better. I'm sure Sister Arter's didn't think twice about it, but Marty's and my jaw just dropped. She's also learned all her letters and letter sounds and a few weeks ago she was painting and started saying, "Mommy, a D! A D, Mommy!" And I was cleaning the kitchen and said something like, "That's nice, Brynn." But then I looked at what she was actually painting, and she really was painting "D"s. My little princess is growing up!







Also, we have finally moved Brynn from her crib to a big-girl bed. We haven't moved her before, just because she loved her crib so much. I figured we would just move her when she started trying to climb out. But I've just been waiting and waiting, and she keeps...not climbing out. Meanwhile, Bryce is a gigantic baby, has seriously outgrown his cradle, and really needs the crib. So we finally bought this cute, barely-used princess bed at a garage sale a couple weeks ago. Ever since then, Brynn has been having lots more fun and a LOT less sleep. For a long time we couldn't get her to leave the light off at night and we could NOT get her to stay in her room. So we put one of those plastic safety door-knobs on her door. But we'd put her to bed, shut the door, and hear, "thud-thud-thud-thud...click!" And she had turned the light on and was playing. Then before too long she figured out how to get the door-knob OFF and would just come out anyway. SO now at night I unscrew her light bulb and TAPE her doorknob together. She WILL sleep! :)




This is what Brynn's room looks like after her naps:







She's always got these displays set up, it is too funny.






And Bryce. Oh, Bryce, Bryce, Bryce. I couldn't keep this kid healthy if my life depended on it. Last week I walked out of the room for 20 seconds to use the bathroom and heard Bryce screaming. I ran in and asked Brynn why he was crying. She put her head down and said, "Scratch Bryce." Grr! He calmed down pretty quick, I stopped worrying about it, and put them both down for the night. The next morning I got Brynn all ready to go to a friend's house, all I needed to do was get Bryce up and feed him. But when he got up, I could see with all the lights on that his eye was really red. I looked in closely and saw a great big scratch on his lens. Sigh. We called the Dr., they told us to come right in, (MORE doctor apps. for Bryce, are you KIDDING me?) put the blue light on his eye, and they saw the same thing I did. Eye drops for a week. Not a huge deal, but it's just always something with that kid. So that week he was on four different medications for various, mild-but-still-kinda-sad maladies.


We did find out at the doctor that he weighs over 16 pounds! He is three months, and Brynn weighed 17 pounds at a year old! But then she was in the fifth percentile and he is in the 95th.

On the FUN side, he is giggling! You really have to work for it, but it is SO worth it! One of the happiest feelings I get is hearing my kids laugh. Everything in life seems ok while they are laughing.

Also, Bryce is NOT a great sleeper. He thinks he needs to eat every two and a half hours during the day AND at night. But last night he slept from 10:00 pm until 6:00 am! I haven't had this much energy in months! :)

I have a finger-sucker on my hands! About half the time he falls asleep on his own, it is with two fingers in his mouth.

The things we do a lot together are reading...

...and we love our morning snuggles.

Brynn and I did our favorite craft project yet!

We painted clothespins white:

Then decorated them....

And then used them to hang Brynn's masterpieces in her room!