Baking, Say Cheese, and Painting

On Friday I attempted a Wheat bread recipe that I hadn't tried before. I don't think it turned out quite as beautiful as I thought the white bread recipe I did but it sure still tasted wonderful. I think I am liking the bread making now. :)

On Sunday I decided to take a picture of the kids. It is always an interesting experience to get this done especially with the two younger ones. Tayden is definitely going to be animated. It's hard to get him to just smile normal or act normal. I guess it wouldn't be Tayden without expecting that. Clarissa sometimes can be way too cheesey but other times we'll catch a pretty normal smile. I think the pictures turned out o.k. considering those factors.

On Saturday Samantha and I went with my Mother-in-law, Sister-in-law, and Sammy's cousin to go get our nails done. It was a birthday present for us. I got pretty finger nails and Sammy got a pedicure and her nails painted. It was a fun outing.

I really don't know what it is about Clarissa and icing but she likes to paint herself with it. Isn't she beautiful? :) I was trying to upload a video of her painting herself but I am not paitent enough. It took too long so you just get the pictures.

Lifting, Stacking and Baking.

Both Tayden and Clarissa think it is great fun to join me in my workouts. I think it is funny to watch when they are trying to attempt some of the moves. Corey took a pic. of Tayden lifting some weights with me. Well, I am not in the picture....for a very good reason! :)

Wednesday I wanted to bake bread but remembered that my oven needed a really good cleaning before I baked one more thing in it. It is now beautiful on the inside. All I can say is Thank goodness for self-cleaning ovens. While I was doing some other cleaning I turned around and saw that Clarissa was cleaning out a cupboard for me. Hey, at least she was having fun while doing it.

Thursday, I finally got to the bread baking. This recipe made Four loaves of bread. We already ate one loaf and the kids have started on another one. I cut the other two up and put them in the freezer. If you want to see the recipe, head on over to Ruthy's_Diner to check it out.

Our Cat

So you all didn't know we had a cat did ya.......o.k. so we really don't. But this video is sure dang cute of Clarissa being a cat. She also likes to pretend she is a dog. She even likes to go around trying to lick us. At the end of the video she almost falls so it goes a little crazy then. lol :) Plus it isn't very clear because it was taken from my phone.
I just had to share because I absolutely love this of her.

Sitemeter

O.k. ya'll...I have a sitemeter. I have only had two people respond to my Paying it Forward post. I checked my sitemeter and I have seen many of you pop on and check out my blog. If the only thing that is holding you back is that you don't want to do this yourself that is fine. I am not going to hold you to it. I have had only two people put their names down and I would have had three but someone commented and then deleted. I would LOVE to do it for someone else. But if I only have the two comments on the Paying it Forward post then they will be the only ones receiving my sweet rewards. I am not sure what I will be doing yet....it all depends on where you live. Please don't be afraid to be the third person to comment. I won't hold you to it. I would just love to reward you.

Paying it Forward!

I saw this going around but never was on time to be one of the first three to comment until just recently. So here are the Rules.

1. Be one of the first THREE bloggers to leave a comment on this post, which then entitles you to a handmade item from me - something crafty or yummy, who knows?!

2. Winners must post this challenge on their blog, meaning that they will Pay It Forward, creating a handmade gift -anything!- for the first THREE bloggers who leave a comment on their post about this giveaway!

3. The gift that you send to your friends can be from any price range and you have 365 days to make/ship your item. This means you should be willing to maintain your blog at least until you receive your gift and have shipped your gifts. And, remember: It’s the Spirit and the Thought That Counts!

4. When you receive your gift, please feel free to blog about it, sharing appropriate pictures and comments! If you are not one of the Top Three Commenter's on this post, you can still play along. Go ahead and start your own Pay It Forward chain, and encourage your blogging friends to do the same!!

29 for the 4th time! (wink wink)

Alright, most of you know that it was my birthday yesterday. It began with a delicious breakfast made by my sweetheart, Corey. I had a Sausage Egg McMuffin, bacon, Potatoes O'brien, and muffins. Braxton topped it all off by pouring me a tall glass of Juice. Delicious!!!

As I went out to the car to head off to Church Corey somehow sneaked out there and wrote little messages on the windows for all to see. Lucky me! I didn't realize until later that he actually included my age! Hmmph! Thanks Peter for pointing that out.

I had many well wishes. Thank you all for calling, stopping by, or leaving me messages. It really made it wonderful. I went to my parents for dinner where I had another delicious meal. We had yummy ham, cheesey potatoes (also known as Funeral potatoes), salad, fruit, home made rolls....oh what am I forgetting..oh the green beans, YUCK! They all know I don't like green beans. For dessert I had THREE...yes count them....ONE, TWO, THREE CAKES! My mom made one, we made one, and my brother Brooks "made" one. There went my weight loss straight out the window. Anyway, you can see them in the pics. below. Also, I forgot to mention the adorable sign that a gorgeous, almost 15 year old, Miss Dee helped my kids make to give me. I got some great presents too. A cute scrapbook bag, more chocolate molds, Lowe's gift card, Bath and Body works Stress Relief body wash and Sweet Pea lotion. I LOVE Sweet Pea. I don't know how she ever knew. Thank you so much. I also got Mamma Mia, I have never seen but I guess I will be now. ;) How can I forget the Apron that was sitting on my doorstep when I came home from dinner and of course I got clothes.

Thanks again to everyone for the wonderful Birthday!

"I Wanna Talk about Me"

I have always had a love of music for as long as I can remember. I loved listening to it and a lot of songs would have deep meaning to me. Listening to music has got me through some hard times. Many songs just tug me right at the heart. Music plays a big part in my life.

Let me point out that I said I love to LISTEN to music. I grew up taking piano lessons for I don't know how long. I just never was good at it. It was frustrating. I am not a patient person so I am sure I just wanted the fingers to flow easily across the keys. Just didn't happen. I can play a few songs here and there but I don't have a piano right now so I really would have to practice a lot before I started playing the songs I used to know how to play. I really wanted to sing too. I was in Concert Choir and I did take voice lessons for a year. I would just get too nervous during my recitals when I had to sing solo. I was perfectly fine and comfortable singing in a group. I was in my comfort zone. (Just a side note: I loved dancing and would be perfectly happy if I could do a dance solo when I was little. I wanted to be the best then. I was good at it....but that was then. ;) lol )

About a year and a half ago I got called to be the Music Chairperson in my ward. I laughed when the calling was extended to me because I really don't know much about music. I love Hymns though. The only thing I really have had to do with this calling is pick out the music for Sacrament meeting. I love it. The Hymns are beautiful. I take part in the choir because I can sing in a choir. I lead when my chorister can't be there. (I learned how to lead in Young Womens.)

So because of this calling I feel like people think I have some kind of music talent. Sorry to disappoint you all but I don't. As of late I have been asked to do a few things that I am not very comfortable with. I honestly wish that I had a talent in this area. Anyway, I am just trying to figure it all out right now. Just remember this.....I warned you.

Samantha's Birthday cont.

On Sunday we celebrated Sammy's Birthday with Grandma and Grandpa Hotton and Aunt Ashlee. They came over for Samantha's favorite, a Potato Bar. We had a chocolate pie and another flower cake. We had a lot of fun and some good laughs.

Finally, yesterday, we had Grandma and Grandpa Fuller and other family and friends over for cake and ice-cream for Family Night. What a spoiled little girl. Oh how we love her so though. :)

The following pictures were requested to be taken by Grandma. She wanted a girl cousin picture taken but as you can see one little girl put on the fakest, cheesiest smile she could in all three shots. Oh well. Mom, the bigger one is probably the best of the three. :)

Happy Birthday Samantha!

Today is my sweet Sammy's Birthday. She is now 7. She has had an exciting weekend celebrating her birthday. Friday she had her ears pierced. That was her big surprise present. Although, she kind of knew she was getting them done she just didn't know when. On Saturday she had a few girlfriends over and they had lunch and got their nails painted. Later that night she got to go on a Daddy/Daughter date to Wingers. Then on Sunday her Grandma and Grandpa Hotton and Aunt Ashlee came over for dinner and we celebrated her birthday with them then. Tonight, if the weather cooperates, she'll have more family and friends over to celebrate. Phew....what a birthday. I'll post more pictures later but here are some from Saturday.

Lesson Learned?

This is the left side of our Entertainment Center. Everything is intact and where it should be.

This is the right side of our Entertainment center. What is missing? (**please note these pictures were taken at different times of the day so the coloring is different.) Did you notice the space?

This is the missing piece.

Now how the heck did that happen you ask?

This is what happened to it:

No Tayden, we did not want to take this apart piece by piece.

If you missed the right side of his forehead you may want to look again. What I really should have done is taken the picture at its maturity. If you were missing a golf ball, Tayden was keeping it stored in his forehead. And as the title asks, "Lesson Learned?", the answer is NO! He was running around again later today. Oh how we love this boy.

Piercingly Beautiful

Although her Birthday is not until Monday, I brought Samantha to Claire's for an early Birthday present. My brave girl got her ears pierced. She was such a big girl and was so excited to get them pierced. I posted the videos so you can see that she didn't even cry.