Hello and Goodbye!

I am seriously going to lose my mind if it doesn't stop snowing around here! Maybe this blog will send out positive spring waves and that will help out a little. Anyway, I didn't do a very good job of blogging during these winter months so I have compiled a slideshow of a few things that got missed. I wrote some captions if you care to look at the slideshow in it's enlarged version.

Goodbye winter.....



Hello Spring!!



Well, there it is! I hope Spring really does start soon, for real. We have had temptings, but then back to the cold times. Today a friend reminded me that it was snowing duing the October conference. Snow for 6 months? I feel like I moved to Alaska or something! Should I put away the winter clothes or shouldn't I? It is all too confusing. I guess we will just have to soldier on through these times of seasonal depression. I'm sure that Spring really is just around the corner!

The Young Scrumptious is 4!

I'm a little behind on my poor blog, but I wanted to put a little slideshow of Ally's birthday. She was so cute and excited about her "pink birthday wrappers" (wrapping paper) and had a blast at Kangaroo Zoo (a place with a bunch of those blow up slides and moon walks). We also went to Purple Turtle with the Aunts and Uncles, cousins, and Nana and Papa. She loved all of her much anticipated presents, except the bike. I tried to help her ride it and she just kept saying "I'll try this one next time." (whatever that means). So, that one went back to Walmart, but everything else has been played with to death.
Allyson makes us laugh everyday with her funny things. Just today she said she was excited to go to Nana's while Mommy went to her "doctor's reportment" Also, in a conversation with Todd the other day she said "actually, I prefer Sprite!" Anyway, she is a delightful, funny child and I have loved watching her grow up to be such a big girl. P.S. the title of this blog is the name Jordan's friends gave her when she was little. Funny boys!

The wierd purse tag thing!

Ok, already! Here is my long awaited purse contents blog! First, let me say I am always on the look for the perfect purse. It must have several outside pockets, and several inside pockets. A divider down the middle is a definite bonus, but can be overlooked if the purse is cute enough. It must also be just the right size, not too big and not too small, and should be able to stand up without falling over. It should fit a lot without looking like a monstrosity! Plus, I like it to cost under $20.00. If any of you find a purse with these crazy expectations, please purchase it for me at any time and I will write you a check immediately. I found my latest purse at Ross (featured below). I think Elise and Mom also found one that day (we are all a little cumpulsive). I really like this one because it is brown and black so it goes with everything. I also have my eye on a darling green one at Target. If it doesn't go on sale soon, I may have to go ahead and spend a tich over 20.00! So, what is inside this long sought after purse with many pockets? First of all, the new wallet system, also purchaced at Ross. About the time my planner filler ran out, Todd gave me his plam pilot since he got a fancy all inclusive phone. So, I needed a wallet which I haven't needed in years. I wanted it to be able to hold my 700 cards ranging from Cafe Rio punch cards to Costco/Amex. Also 2 checkbooks (one preschool, one personal), receipts, a pen, money, and also the palm, phone and keys if I decided not to take my whole purse in the store. I found the dream wallet' that actually fits all that stuff, with 7 different compartments and tons of card holding slots. So, I throw that in one side of the purse and the other side holds the small first aid kit (who knows what is actually left in it...), wipes, empty water bottle, "emergency supplies" in the zipper pocket, and a snack baggie for Ally. In the small inside pockets are my sunglasses & Palm and I also have a Bluetooth in one those pockets. It was also handed down from Todd. He lost it, so he bought another, and magically it showed back up a few months later. Hopefully I learn how to use it so I don't wreck while on the phone! Last but not least, the outside pockets. This is where I keep my keys, phone, chapstick, lip gloss, mints or gum, nail clippers, lotion, and sanitizer. This is of course on a good day when the kids haven't ravaged through my personal stuff. I also always WISH I had a little brush, comb, and hairdo's. With all these girls, we are always in need of a spitshine so that is going to be my next addition! Anyway, there you have it. Katrine and Lori feel free to enlighten us about your purses if you aren't annoyed by these silly tags!!

Balentimes Day!

Valentines Day is always sort of an afterthought around here since our anniversary is on the 12th. I make the kids our tradtitional pink heart pancakes for breakfast and for the last several years I have gotten a heart shaped pizza for dinner. I generally make Todd the peanut butter kiss cookies, but this year I branched out to homemade peanut butter cups and stuffed mushrooms (both of which I forgot to take a picture!) It turned out to be a crazy day. Melody and I had 2 preschool parties, I planned Katy's class party(room mother.....), took 3 kids to the dentist, took dinner to the neighbors, baked for Todd in my spare time , and finished the night with Jordan's b-ball game at 8:00. As it turned out, the new treats were a big hit so I will put the recipies below. I usually don't like to eat a whole mushroom, but these are so good I could eat the whole pan! One funny thing did happen to Jordan. Some girls "heart attacked" our front door and left a bear and some candy! Who knew that sort of thing would be happening already. As you can see from the picture, he was not excited for me to take it, and he was also not excited for me to blog about it. I should maybe respect his wishes, so I might delete this part of the blog. Silly Jr. High stuff--how am I going to make it through? Also as you can see, our preschool party was SO FUN that this poor little guy couldn't stay awake! The Charlie Brown book was kind of long, but he was completely zonked out! He would have slept forever if one of the other kids hadn't jabbed him pretty hard to wake him up.

Stuffed Mushrooms

Brown a package of sausage and set aside. Brush off mushrooms (aparently washing makes them tough) take stems off mushrooms and dice. In a saucepan brown the mushroom pieces with some diced garlic and a little butter. Add sausage and a package of cream cheese and mix. Hollow out the mushrooms a little with a melon baller and scoop the mixture in the mushrooms. Put in a muffin pan so they don't tip over and bake @ 400 for 15 min, or until mushrooms are tender. Sprinkle with parmasean cheese in the last few minutes. Delish!

Peanut Butter Cups

Crush up some oreos without the filling. Add some melted chocolate chips and stir. Put in a mini muffing pan (or something similar--I even used the plastic thing from a box of chocolates). Mix peanut butter with some whip cream and a little powdered sugar. Put a dab on top of the oreo crust. Pour melted chocolate chips mixed with a tsp of oil on the top and refridgerate. Yummy!

I realize these recepies are not very exact, but you will see that it doesn't really matter! They were very easy and fast. Perfect to take to a party or something when you need to look fancy, but you don't have much time!!

Happy 14th!

(This shows how much snow we have had lately . It looked like a mountain so we went climbing)

Yesterday was our 14th anniversary! How did that happen? That sure sounds like a lot of years when you say it out loud! It seems like just a few days ago that we drove to the Jordan River Temple and took our wedding pictures in the snow. So, for our anniversary festivities we decided to make our favorite Pork Chops Marsala from Carrabbas (saving about $50.00--we looked the recepie up on the internet and Todd makes an excellent copy, maybe even better than the original!) and get a yummy piece of cake from Dippidees pastry shop. We had planned to put the kids to bed at precisely 8:00 so we could have a nice quiet dinner, but Todd made arrangements with Elise who offered to come get our kids and take them to Mom's to play. Todd also thought it would be nice to take a drive to the Jordan River Temple since we haven't been back to that temple since our wedding day. We had a nice time there then came home and got started on our delicious dinner. It's so wierd to be in our house without any kids around. Todd also surprised me with some beautiful flowers even though we decided not to get each other anything. He is quite sweet and sentimental. He said he just couldn't not get me something. At least he didn't get roses, which he generally does. (It stresses me out since they are so expensive this time of year). Anyway, we had a very nice and relaxing time, thanks to Lili. I am so grateful to be married to a loving, fun, and thoughtful husband. Thank you Honey!

"I was trying to be a Cowgirl!"

I know, it's high time I post something on this poor blog. I haven't figured it out yet, but I'm probably going to go to the "invitation only" situation. If you want to be invited, email me at ambergpeck@gmail.com and I will let you in on VIP status! Anyway, I was making jello jigglers for preschool tomorrow so I got out a few bowls for mixing. I left one I didn't use out on the counter and went to help Katy with her ever loving piano theory. The next thing I know, Allyson comes walking out with a bowl for a hat! What a nut case!! I ran for the camera and she laughed pretty hard when I showed her the pictures. She especially thought her post bath hair was hilarious. Then she made me put on the bowl and went to get her Fisher Price camera to take pictures of me. She laughed and laughed and then said "Now I need to take a picture of the fridge!" So...I'm up there with the fridge, Yikes! Oh, and the title to this blog is her response to the question of why she put the bowl on her head!
One more funny Ally thing. Today she had a friend over that she sometimes gets into mischief with (i.e. flushing a tea set plate down the toilet causing the whole thing to be replaced, fingernail polish on the carpet, eating suger out of the bucket with spoons, need I go on...) She is normally a pretty good kid, but she and my good friend's darling little girl think of really fun stuff to do together. So, Todd asked her if she and Bella were naughty today (which they weren't) and she said "Just a teeny tiny piece of naughty." What does that mean? That I haven't found some dissaster somewhere? Only time will tell.....

Ice Skating Times

This is not in the right order. I am still trying to find a minute to blog about our Christmas festivities, but Lili and Jeff wanted to see these pictures. Later this will be in it's proper place with the description etc. So, here is a little preview, or you can wait till later....you decide!
P.S. I just selected all the pictures and some are really dorky, so they will not be in the future slideshow. If you want to see those, this is your only chance!