If You Tell...

If you tell your child he has a sweaty wrist,

He'll want a sweatband to wear.

He'll then start rummaging through his toys in search of daddy's old sweatband.

Mommy will then wonder what the heck he's doing instead of getting into bed.

He'll then tell mommy "You said I had a sweaty wrist so I need to wear my sweatband."

Mommy will then chuckle and give him a big hug cause he's so cute.

* A real life Ethan story inspired by one of my favorite children's stories.

All About Impressing The Kids. . .

And some adults. I got this weird itch to make rainbow jello, so I did.

Christmas Tidbits

This year I made myself wait to decorate or listen to Christmas music until December 1st. I think that November should get full Thanksgiving attention and December gets full Christmas attention. Plus it made the anticipation for December to come all that much more exciting. On Saturday we spent 5 hours setting up our Christmas decor. Two of the hours was spent actually putting up our a little bit outdated, fake Christmas tree - branch by branch - Chad is the one to thank for that. I have to admit that I do love real trees more than fake, but we got this 9 footer from Courtney for free, so that beats spending $70 on a tree that will die in a few weeks.
This is Ethan doing the honors of putting the star on the tree. Actually this is just a posed picture because he was a little nervous to go that high. My favorite part of this picture is the foil on the rabbit ears in the background.
I have to say that Ethan has quite the decorative eye when it comes to dressing the Christmas tree.
I bought this cedar garland to help bring some "realness" into the decor since we have a fake tree this year. I was really looking forward to its nice fresh scent, but instead I get annoyed every time I pass it because it smells like mildew. Yuck! But it still looks pretty - I'll give it that much.
I got crafty today and made a Christmas card holder which I think is so cute. But I can't take any credit for it, I give all credit to Arah. She also made the cutest button tree that I would also like to make sometime.

And this is Ethan in his new winter garb.

Black Friday

So I'm one of those crazy girls who goes out on the Friday after Thanksgiving all in the name of finding a great deal - so sue me. This is my second year doing this with my sister Courtney. Our sister-in-law has done this for years and has always invited us to come, but I have always declined and thought she was crazy. I hate getting up early in the morning, I can't stand the crowds, I don't like having to fight for a "thing," and I'm not really a bargain shopper. Well that has all changed for me. At least on Black Friday. Last year Courtney and I decided to give it a whirl just to see what Black Friday was all about. We walked into Target about 5 minutes after it had opened and the lines were insane. We were very close to just walking out and going back to bed, but all our reservations went out the door once we found some really great DVDs for $4 a piece. Since then I've been hooked.

This year we got up even earlier and were at Shopko even before it opened at 5am. We rushed in with the crowds of wild eyed crazy women with our elbows out. Courtney, Annette, and I divided and conquered. Grabbing things for each other if necessary. We're quite the resourceful shoppers. The only thing I would do next year is bring walkie-talkies. Those are a must. AND for you novices out there, DO NOT wait in those long lines! Just go right up to the customer service counter and they'll let you buy your stuff there. You rarely have to wait.

Call me materialistic. Call me crazy. But I find myself getting quite a high when I find a fabulous deal or when I take the last item on the shelf. Not only that but one of the highlights is eating a huge piece of Villa cheese pizza at 8:30 in the morning. It tastes so good after a hard morning of shopping and fighting crowds. So don't knock it til you try it.

This is in front of Target as the doors opened at 6am and the thousands of people were walking into the store. This picture doesn't quite capture the craziness.
This is us by our awesome parking spot. Somehow we managed to get front row parking going into the mall. We just had to capture it on film.

The Beloved Carrot Cookie with Orange Frosting

If anyone has been to a holiday party with the Wasdens then you've probably tried these cookies at least once. Or you may not have eaten them at all since they don't necesarrily look the most appetizing . In appearances and title they may appear like a humble Ford Festiva amongst the Rolls Royces of holiday goodies, but these cookies are soooo good and they deserve a little spotlight.

As long as I can remember my mom has made these maybe once a year around the holidays and so they will always remind me of this time of year. I recently found out that when my mom was at college she found the recipe in a small Carnations recipe booklet and decided to make them. And she's loved them ever since. Do not snub these cookies because of their title and looks. Trust me, you won't even be able to taste the carrots, plus in the cookie world, they're actually pretty healthy. Try it! And when you do, you can think of the Wasdens who just can't get enough of them.

I'm including the recipe below:

Cream together:

3/4 C white sugar

3/4 C butter

Then add in order:

1 egg

1 C mashed, cooked carrots

1 tsp vanilla

1/2 C coconut (optional - I've never put coconut in)

2 C Flour

2 tsp baking powder

1/2 tsp salt

Drop by teaspoons - full on cookie sheet. Bake at 375 degrees for 12 -15 min.

Frost with:

3 C powdered sugar

1/3 C butter

Orange juice concentrate and orange rind to taste.

A Little R & R

Our little friend Logan has been staying with us since Thursday night. You'd think it'd be all wild and crazy around here with two four year olds running around playing superheroes, but I really feel like I've been on a mini vacation. Besides having the occasional 4-year old feud to break up - "I'm not going to play with you anymore!" or "My dad is bigger than your dad!" or having to stop one of them from jumping on the other's ribs - I spent most of my time reading my book without feeling guilty that I was neglecting anyone, although I did neglect other things. They want a snack? - I just send them to the pantry. I need something at the store? - I send them in to get it. Just kidding Lori! I wasn't that lazy, although the first one is true. Its the best when you've got two little guys who just love fighting bad guys together.

They just spent almost an hour in the bathtub. Can you say pruney??
I just finished reading The Goose Girl, and its a really good book. I would recommend it.

Tidbits

CALLED TO SERVE. . .Something that made me smile at Stake Conference tonight was during the closing hymn, "Called To Serve," I noticed my foot moving to the beat of the music, then I looked at my mom's foot which was also moving to the beat, then I started looking at the feet of the people on the bench in front of us and off to the sides and many others were also moving their feet to the beat. For some reason the whole scene made me laugh. Its not often that I check out other people's feet during hymns, but in case you haven't, next time look around while singing Called To Serve at a church function, its pretty humorous.

There was an old lady in front of us who started started coughing and after a few harmless coughs a prim and proper old lady in front of her shushed her and then turned back to the speaker shaking her head in disbelief. Wierd. My mom and I turned to each other in disbelief. Like the lady could help it.

SPOOKY CAT. . . As I was pulling into my garage tonight I looked in my rear view mirror and in the darkness of the night I saw our neighbors cat smack dab in my view in the distance. He was this wierd passing vision cause when I got out of my car and looked back he had disappeared. I swear this cat is out to get me. He sneaks up on me with his loud meows like he's mad or something, he sneaks around in my backyard, and tries to get into our house. I find mini piles of dirt in my flower garden where sod should be, and I'll find dirt sprayed onto our cement walkway, like seeing the annoying dirt piles wasn't enough for me to know that he's been pooping in there for months. Its like he wants to taunt me. Let me know if you have any ideas on how to keep cats from pooping in gardens.

CURTAINS. . .I finally put some curtains up in our family room and it just makes me happy. Curtains are just homey. Its one of those many home projects that I always intend to do but have a hard time getting around to.

EX-BOYFRIENDS. . .I saw an exboyfriend of one of my really good friends on HGTV this week. He was househunting.

So On Halloween...

We did a little bit of this...

We went to an old folks home and did a Reader's Theater script and then went and trick-or-treated to all the tables where the old folks sat.

Then we did a lot of that...

And now what the heck do I do with all this??

Do I let him eat as much as he can and then "throw" the rest away - you know "throwing away" is adult code for hiding the stash for ourselves. Do I let him have 2 or 3 pieces a day until next Halloween? Seriously let me know of any good ideas you have about managing your kid's halloween candy.

Tagged

This is my first time being tagged and I was tagged by my friend Krista (scottkristalukas.blogspot.com). Which I'm kind of glad about cause I've been in a bloggers rut lately.

So I'm supposed to list 7 things about myself that are hopefully interesting. So here it goes:

1. Chad and I are in the adoption process! Don't get too excited yet because we're at the beginning of the process, we still have a mountain of papers to fill out. But we're excited and will be even more excited once we're actually on the list.

2. It makes me nauseous if I try and take my pulse.

3. One church calling that I've had that has made me actually not want to go to church was being the Relief Society pianist in our first young married ward. I would get so nervous and mess up and it was so embarassing. I would soooo much rather give a talk or a lesson than accompany someone on the piano.

4. I am the Rubiks Race queen! There are very few people that can beat me (I will give Courtney credit for beating me sometimes) other than that people just stop trying cause I'm so good. If you're wondering what the heck it is - take yourself back to the 80s when rubiks cubes were in and they made it into this game for 2 players and blah, blah, blah - its hard to explain on paper. Anyone up for a challenge?? I'm always up for a little competition.

5. I got 12 of my teeth pulled out at one time when I was 12 years old (4 baby teeth, 4 molars, and 4 wisdom teeth).

6. While here in Boise I played on an indoor soccer team for a while. Very fun.

7. If I have a choice between chocolate or carmel, hands down I will choose carmel - homemade, soft, chewy carmel. YUM! So much better than chocolate. Don't get me wrong I like chocolate too, but carmel is just better.

So now I'm tagging:

Brittany
Carrie
Courtney
Emily B.
Heather
Katie Bullock
Matthew L.

And I apologize to some of you long time bloggers who've had to do this more than once.

My 32nd Birthday

Here I am on my 32nd birthday. This picture was taken after a really satisfying dinner of chicken fettucine alfredo, caesar salad, and some really rich chocolate cake - yum. I have to say that this birthday was really not a big deal and I don't like to make a big deal out of my birthdays but I appreciate it when they are acknowledged and this birthday was one of those where I felt acknowledged. I went to breakfast with a friend who's daughter thought I was 22 (thank you very much. Then again she's 6) and with my sister. Then while Ethan was at a friends I had the pleasure of going to the temple. I opened some wonderful presents from Chad and Ethan. And then I went to dinner with some friends. And the festivities will continue this weekend with a date with Chad and a family get together. I feel loved and I appreciate it. Thanks!! Here is what Ethan looked like on my 32nd birthday. He was excited to give his present to me which was a toaster with 4 slots. Yeh!! We needed a new one.

It's Fall! - Even In Idaho

Yes I took the top picture while driving - probably not the safest thing to do. But I just love this cute tree lined street downtown. We don't have many of those in these parts.
One of my favorite things about fall, besides the changing leaves, is going to Linder Farms with Chad and Ethan to pick out a pumpkin. Even though its only our 2nd time doing this, since we haven't lived here all that long, I'm excited to do it every year as one our family traditions.

They've got fun bouncy things, a barrell train ride for the kids, a hay maze, and a hayride out to the pumpkin patch. The funny thing about the hayride is that it takes you to the pumpkin patch which is about 50 yards walking distance. So you can either walk to it in 2 minutes or less or wait 30 minutes in line for the hayride. As you can see it was getting dark so we chose to walk this year. Although the hayride is fun for the kids. It took us about 30 minutes to meandor through the pumpkin patch in search of our perfect pumpkin.
Here's Chad seeking Ethan's approval. He didn't approve this one, so we searched on.
We found it! Its a tall and narrow one - just the kind I was hoping for. And can you believe this baby was just $4.20?? And it was like 18 lbs. Cheap!

Granny Air Bag

This cracks me up everytime!

Diary Of A Spider Killer

Believe it or not I felt guilty today after killing a spider in my garage. I'm sorry but it was just so big and ugly, I had to get rid of it. I wouldn't have felt so bad if it had been in my house and I had killed it since that is technically my territory. My policy is that I have free reign while in my house but I try not to kill them when they're outside since that is technically their territory. But what about the garage? It sort of seems like neutral territory since its partially outside yet its all enclosed so it seems a bit inside. Is it sort of like Switzerland where no military action can take place there? Should I have lured it into the house and then taken action? I feel a bit like a cold blooded killer. I just took it by so much surprise that it almost seems unfair. Am I off base on this?

"Its Poop Again"

Well I got pooped on by a seagull today. Right on the ol' noggin. After conference Chad, Ethan, and I were taking a stroll to a school nearby and there was one bird in sight and it decided to poop right on my head. I swear they've got to aim. Is that what I get for being stalwart and watching all 4 sessions?? At least it added a little excitement if you can call it that.

Speaking of poop...I might as well run with this subject while I'm at it. The other day Ethan was playing with his cousin and I heard them laughing histerically in the other room. A little bit later Ethan comes up to me and goes "I was laughing really hard and I pooped in my pants a little, and then it fell out in my room." Who does that?? I've heard of peeing while laughing histerically but pooping?

Upon Courtney's Request

Here is a full length picture of the BBB in all her splendor:

Saying Goodbye To The Big Blue Bomb

It's true, our Big Blue Bomb as we affectionately called her, returned where she came from - you're probably thinking the big blue junkyard in the sky - nope, we sold this unsung beauty on Craigslist for $650 and it has actually made its way back to where it came from, Spokane, WA. In fact, the new owners drove 7 hours from Spokane just to pick it up. We inherited the BBB from our neighbor while in law school. She was about to take her to the junk yard and we wouldn't hear of it, we saw too much value in her. She had too much potential. Hey, we were one of the few law student couples who actually had a second car because of her, embarassing as she may be.

Some of my favorite memories of the BBB:

• Getting mistaken for a gangsta. Our friends saw Chad and some other ward members at the gas station in the BBB and my friend's husband was sure that it was a bunch of thugs and then realized it was just Chad and some of his buddies.


• Driving around on sunny days with the windshield wipers on. I always got annoyed when I had to use the windshield wipers cause I knew that they were capable of being stuck on for hours at a time, long after it stopped raining.


• When we really wanted to impress somebody we actually would switch over to our "cool" car - our 1990 Trooper (which we still drive) so we didn't embarass ourselves as much.


• There was nothing more fun than pulling up to the preschool in my low ride hoopty and parking amongst all the bright shiny SUVs.

We all need things in life that keep us grounded and humble and we had no problem with that while driving our Big Blue Bomb. But we were really glad to have her, even if for a short time.

I Am So. . .

. . .my mother.

Something that I remember about my mom growing up is that any time she left the house to go anywhere I knew I could count to 60 and she'd be running back into the house because she was always forgetting something. In my minds eye I can see her in the gray Quantum tearing around the corner on the way back to getting something she had forgotten. She has been known to come back multiple times. I would get so frustrated with her for doing that and I would tell her that she really needed to think about everything she needed before she left the house.

Today as I was leaving my house and was about to back out of my driveway, I remembered something I had forgotten in the house. This happened 2 more times. It was ridiculous. I even peered around my neighborhood after the third time to make sure no one had noticed how many times I made the trip from my car to the house in a matter of 3 minutes. All I could think was 'this is so mom.' Just last night I had to turn around after getting partially to my destination because I had forgotten something. Ethan has been known to say to me on many occasions, "mom, you always forget everything." He's also been known to ask, "why do we have to run everywhere? I'm not going to run anymore." because I always seem to be running late. Help me (and my son)!!

Just a side note: I have had my planner since 1994 and I have not replaced the calendar or the address book - ever. So a lot of my addresses have been scratched out and rewritten where ever I've got room. I've got about 4 different addresses for Brittany with her current one saying "newest" right above it, and the examples go on and on. Here is a sample of what most of the pages in my address book look like. Notice all the scratching out and rewriting:

Today I realized, after having the same planner for 13 years that they actually have 15 extra telephone/address pages in the back that I could have been using. Instead I've been cramming phone numbers and addresses where ever I could. Am I revealing too much, because that is just embarassing. Its bad enough that I've had the same planner for 13 years and now I'm actually admitting it.

Maybe We'll Start Tomorrow

This last weekend we had some really good friends of ours come visit us (featured to the left). With that comes a lot of fun, laughs, games, and late nights (well at least we tried). At my house, I also pull out a lot of my "good" recipes which most of the time includes a lot of butter. So come Sunday, I'm feeling pretty nasty and quite bloated and was feeling the need to detox myself and get rid of all that butter I comsumed. So Chad and I made a goal to eat only fruits and vegetables for the next week, and we were serious - we were going to do it. I got even more motivated when I read in People that a puffy face means that you're eating too many refined carbs - Who wants a puffy face?? Well come Monday I get so busy I can't get to the store and we end up having the leftovers from the weekend (more butter). Chad and I turn to each other and say, "maybe we'll start tomorrow." Come Tuesday, I again am busy all day and don't get home til 6:30 and so we have pizza and a cinnamon wheel from Papa Murphys - I couldn't leave out dessert, we hadn't officially started yet. Again we turn to each other, "well, I guess we'll have to start tomorrow." - along with a little chuckle. Today I was pretty busy and racked my brain to figure out what kind of healthy meal I could come up with without having to go to Walmart. SO I came up with chili and cornbread. I spent most of dinnertime justifying all the healthy ingredients that are in Chili and cornbread. I was pretty proud of myself, that's a pretty healthy meal for not having any fresh produce in the house. - I mean, there's a lot of tomato products in there. But I guess we'll have to start our real detox tomorrow. . .lets be honest, its never going to happen.

Our Family

Fly On The Wall

To be honest I have never had any interest in the blogging world until a month or two ago when I discovered the pleasure of being a fly on the wall of people's blogs, and ever since I've been hooked. I've felt so in touch with other people's lives and yet no one knows what's going on in mine. So that is why I am finally entering the blogging world myself and inviting you to be a fly on my wall. What I enjoy about blogs is that you find out things about people that you wouldn't know in a typical conversation, such as:

• While opening a cresent roll tube I get really anxious right before it pops


• I hate spiders and the other day I had my 4 year old sweep up a dead spider I had killed with raid cause I was too scared to get close to it


• I've been known to check my doors to make sure they're locked numerous times before going to bed


• I took the 'Which Twilight character are you?' quiz twice and once I was Jacob and the second time I was Esme


• I've never liked to pick favorites for things cause why limit yourself?


• I'm technically very behind - I've never sent one text message in my life. I don't even know how to do it


• I only have 5 songs on my computer that I listen to over and over


• etc...etc...