Food Follies and Fun

Since Emily and Melody take pictures of their food adventures, I thought I would share some of ours! First Jillian has discovered the Nick Jr. website. After playing some sort of game dealing with muffins, she asked me if she could push the button that says "print here for a muffin recipe". I said sure and she printed out and colored 3 different ones. We decided to make the chocolate muffins because I had all the ingredients (they actually just look like cupcakes, but taste much better!) Success! She was so excited to deliver some to Todd in his office and share them with the kids.

Next, was a Mother/Daughter achievement day activity that involved cake decorating. I thought a pink and green and brown one would be cute, so I mistakenly made the Martha Stewart cake which is delish, but not so pleasing to the eye. I forgot that I always have a hard time making the layers not lopsided. This time was particularly bad...pieces stared falling off. Katy said it was fine. She thought we could put some green frosting and make it look like a hill or something. She wanted to put a chocolate chip in the middle so it would look like we dug a hole to plant a seed! I thought I would spare her the public humiliation of having the worst looking cake and went to the store for a cake mix and some frosting in a squeeze can with fun tips. On the way to the activity we picked some blossoms off our bushes and trees and this was the result. She had a great time and was proud of what she created! Can you believe I didn't even have to go to chefery school and I can bake like this? Too bad Emily didn't come a few weeks earlier.....we may have gotten a better award than "Best Smelling Cake!"

Happy Easters to All!

Here are some pictures for those of you(I guess this pretty much includes everyone) who never see us at church-they do clean up nicely don't they! I hope you all had a nice Easter/Cami's B-day! If you haven't watched Nacho Libre yet, do so immediately and look for the priest's comment about Easters. I can't say Easter without the S anymore! I hope it is not sacrilidge!

I Survived-And Loved It!!!

I did it--and I survived! Saturday was my first attempt at a triathalon sprint. This is a picture of my friend Heather Walker and me just before the swim. (She is a seasoned triathlete and marathon runner). It all started last summer when I decided to get a road bike. I needed to do some cross training to mix up my workouts. I also started swimming laps. For Christmas, Todd gave me a trainer for my bike so I could ride inside during the winter. So, when my nutritionist friend mentioned that the Icebreaker Sprint was coming up I decided to bite the bullet and give it a try. I trained harder, got the outfit (very important to look the part!!) and did a strict pre-race diet. The diet is designed to clean you out and then build up your proteins and carbs. Before I got there, I felt really intimidated and I found out that I couldn't use my Ipod on the run! With the run being last, I was afraid that would be problematic, so I convinced Mom to come and do the run part with me. But when I got there, there were people of all ages, sizes, and skill levels. I was number 202 which meant I had to wait a while for my turn to swim. They start with number 1 and another person starts every 10 seconds. Apparently either people don't actually know their swim time when the register, or they lie about it because I kept getting stuck in clogs and couldn't get past people. I couldn't go my hardest in the swim, so I didn't even feel winded when I got out. Next it was off the the 12 something mile bike! The hardest part of the bike was the hill at the first of the 6 mile loop. We had to do that hill twice on the bike and then run up it at the start of the 5K-yikes. It was great to have Mom with me on the run because my legs felt pretty noodley when I got off the bike. It was hard to tell if I was running too slow because everything feels slow compared to the bike. I told Mom just not to let me walk. I wanted to run the whole thing, and surprisingly, I never felt like I wanted to walk. It actually all went faster than I expected and I felt great afterward! Todd was so proud of me! All day he kept saying how proud he was and he told everyone we saw (which was a little embarrassing). He took all of these lovely pictures of me in all my glory and was at the race the whole time. It really helped to have my cheering section there to keep me going. I did feel like I accomplished something that I have been working hard for and it was a good feeling! Heather and I got our free massages afterward, and we also got a free one before the race. The guy said I need to stretch more-oops, I guess I will get working on that! So, my time at the end was 1:22 which was better than I expected. I was 7th in my age group! It is really cool how they time everything and break it all broken down. I did the swim in a disappointing 7:11, the bike in 40 minutes(better than anticipated) and the 5K in 28 something. The rest of the time was in the transitions. Anyway, it was so fun and I will surely do another one-maybe with Mom or Chad and Laura next time!

I am a Happy Mommy!

Sometimes as a mother my kids amaze me. Sometimes I'm amazed that a child of mine would do such a naughty thing, or such a cute thing etc. But, this weekend I was just happy to be Jordan's mom! To make a long story short, several of Jordan's friends have little "girlfriends". Let's bear in mind that they are in 6th grade for crying out loud. Anyway, one of the girls in our ward decided to ask Jordan to "Go" with her. Since when did girls do the asking? Her friend called our house and when she asked Jordan if he would go with Shelby, he said NO! The friend was annoying and kept calling and being silly. Finally, Jordan called the girls back and asked to actually talk to Shelby. He explained that he thinks they are too young to be "going" together and that was the reason he said no. I was so glad that he didn't feel pressured by his friends and stood up for what he believes in. It turns out that Shelby was feeling pressured by her fiends and was glad that he said no. I couldn't believe that he took care of the whole thing by himself. Shelby's Mom said that Shelby was so embarrassed because the other friend was being so annoying, but Jordan was such a little man about it that it made her feel better. He is really growing up! I hope he continues to be a nice boy and make such mature and sensible decisions as he enters the "armpit of the earth" next year in school. Also, as a side note, we measured him today and he is only one inch shorter than me now! Yikes!!

Happy St. Patrick's Day!

My dear blogger friends, I know I have neglected you all! Part of the reason is that I haven't been able to bug Todd about helping me put the video of Jonny and Katy dancing on here and that was going to be my next exciting blog. Also, I have been helping Todd with his bookwork whenever I can. Alas, he is a little stressed right now so I don't want to burden him with my computer issues! Anyway, today was the "Green Party" in preschool. Sad that both Mom and Lili are out of town so I get all the left over green treats that the kids brought (chococlate mint rice crispies, dirty popcorn, grapes etc.) Of course the kids were a little extra excited today, but all went well. It's hard to believe that there are only 2 1/2 months left of school-crazy!
The big news this month is that I am going to attempt a tri-athalon sprint! It is on March 24th in American Fork. It is a 300 swim, 12 mile bike, and 5K run. I have been either running and biking, or running and swimming about 4 times a week. Lately I have tried to do my biking first and then run so I can get used to that weird feeling in my legs. I usually like to get the running over with first in my workout since it is the hardest for me. I am also trying to make Mom do it with me, so everyone work on her! She swims, bikes and runs every time she works out, so she should do great! Plus, she will probably win a ribbon or something because what person in her age group is in such good shape!
In other news, Jordan's basketball team lost their first game in the tournament, so we are done for the season-is was a sad sad game! Now Jordan has a break from sports until baseball starts in May. Katy just started indoor soccer which is her first experience with city sports! She is also going to try out softball this summer. So far only Jordan has played any sports, so we'll see how this goes having other kids games to watch--it should be fun. The other day I was announcing that we were going to Katy's game and everyone was taken a back! Katy said "I like that-Katy's game instead of always Jordan's game!" I guess the girls don't get quite as much attention for their extracurriculars since they only have 1 or 2 dance recitals or whatever a year. It will be fun to pay a little extra attention to the middle child!
Anyway, happy St. Patty's day on Saturday! I hope you all have delicious green dinners!

My baby is 3--How could this happen?

I decided to take Allyson and her little friends (and their moms) to Chuckie Cheese on her birthday. Grandmother's surprise party was that night, so we went for lunch, also that is when all the rides are free! She ran around hopping on all the rides, but kept coming back for more pizza in between. By nighttime she had a pretty bad stomach ache--I think she ate about 4 pieces of pizza and a cupcake! I told the friends not to make a big deal about presents since Dollar store items are still exciting to her. I told my friend Mandi to get her Capri Suns and she would be the hit of the party. (She asked Santa for that and screamed with delight when he actually brought it!) I was right! She kissed and hugged those Capri Suns! She was even shaking at one point as she tried to open the next present--it was just too much excitement. Later that night we went to Grandmother's party and then to Nana's to have cake and open presents. She screamed and hugged each present and immediately put on the dress-up and started playing with her Dora scooter. She was so funny and cute all day--I think it was a success!

The Holy Tag!

This is Jordan

Rules of the Game:
1. Find the nearest book to you.
2. Name the book and author.
3. Turn to page 123.
4. Go to the fifth sentence on the page.
5. Copy out the next 3 sentences and post to your blog.
6. Tag three other people.

The Holy Bible

26 And thou shalt make two rings of gold, and thou shalt put them upon the two ends of the breastplate in the border thereof which is in the side of the ephod inward.
27 And two other rings of gold thou shalt make, and shalt put them on the two sides of the ephod underneath toward the forepart thereof over against the other coupling thereof, above the curios girdle of the ephod.
28 And they sholl bind the breastplate by the rings thereof unto the rings of the ephod with a lace of blue, that it may be above the curious girdle of the ephod, and that the breastplate be not loosed from the ephod.

Hmm who are my next victims... Don't worry I' ll just do the same as my mom, and you only have to do it once.