Promises

Sorry for the lapse -- I promise to be up and posting tomorrow with pictures and everything. We've been up to a lot, but I'm just on to add some new links today. 1. Amy -- my super cute neighbor and Ellie's Primary Teacher. Ellie's other just-as-cute Primary teacher, Katherine, is on my list too 2. Holly -- one of my fabulous friends from when we were first married at BYU and 3. Nicole -- a super talented friend from church

For today I leave you with an Ellie funny. We were in the car talking and Ellie mentioned a little something about her Principal.
Ellie: Mom do you know that Dr. Bader just changed her name to be Dr. Bader?
Me: What was it before?
Ellie: I don't know. Maybe Dentist Bader?

So just to prove good on my promise, I made my kids take a whole bunch of pictures to go along with everything I promise to blog about. That also means you'll be seeing the same outfits for a week ;p.
<---- Sneak peek

Happy Sunday! No school this week, and Conference this weekend. I really feel like I'm on vacation.

It has a name!

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I meant to post this on Friday and take a picture of my kids in their cool NY t-shirts, but I never got around to taking the picture, so I forgot to post it. OOPS! Anyway, so I'll just add on to it and hopefully get a picture later this week.
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Dustin is back from his trip to New York for the big product launch. They officially named it Business byDesign. So now I can say what my husband does, not that it makes it any more clear to me what all it entails. It's a really exciting time for his group since they've been working really hard to get customers live for the big day. Really hard. Like 15 hour days hard. I'm also proud because he earned award for all his hard work. He's a rock star.

You can read about it here

Usually I'm pretty good about not being mopey when Dustin is out of town, but this trip was HARD! Maybe because the kids were still sick and whiny, but mostly because I had planned on going with him. Due to a laundry list of reason -- each more boring than the last so I won't list them all -- I ended up staying home and being slightly bitter the whole time.

But he's home now and we're happy to have him.

This weekend was our Primary Program and it was AWESOME!!! Janel is our Chorister and Jill wrote our program, so they get all the props! Thanks girls for being so great. You're the BEST! I will never ever let them release you. EVER. At the end of Saturday practice we were playing Red Rover and just laughing with the kids and I thought, "I can't believe I get to have this much fun in a calling!" I feel really lucky to get to know all the kids. They are so willing to share and so easy to love.

So today after I got home from helping out at Ellie's school, Nate and I went to the grocery store for ingredients for poppy seed bread to make for Jill and Janel. I also had to get some donuts since I had promised one little girl a donut if she said her part, and while I was there I saw the Halloween sugar cookies that Ellie loves to make, so I threw those in the cart as well. I was so embarrassed to check out with a cart of SUGAR! I gained weight just looking at my shopping cart.

I did manage to get rid of all the bread and then my neighbor gave us Amish bread starter. But I just can't resist sugar and bread. Especially together. YUM! Anyway, enjoy the pictures which have nothing to do with anything. Nate is obsessed with puzzles lately and Sadie can't resist my computer.

How I learned to love Halloween

In case you're wondering why I suddenly have such an enthusiasm for Halloween, I thought I'd better explain. I have a few friends who are Halloween-CRAZED --they know who they are, but I've never been a big fan. Dustin and Nate both have birthdays just days before and it seems like there are so many stinking things going on that time of year. You've got school parties, friend parties, Church parties, neighborhood parties, going to the pumpkin patch, carving pumpkins and then the actual day itself. Then there's always the gobs of crappy candy you don't want your kids to eat that they've gatehred through all these events.

So in general, I've just never done very much around the house for Halloween. I figure there's enough going on already. My big thing last year was getting the kids pumpkin shirts because Nate loved pumpins so much. We've never even carved a pumpkin!

Last week I was talking to Ellie's room mom about how we should start planning the Halloween class party. When I taught school we had the BEST Halloween parties. One mom brought in smoke machine! Anyway, back to the story. So the mom e-mails Ellie's teacher and we find out that there is no Halloween party! The school district doesn't allow you to celebrate Halloween. WHAAAATTTTT? I'm going to spend $50 on a Halloween outfit and Ellie isn't going to have 80 billion things to go to? She's in school all day so she's missing out on half the usual Halloween hub bub. PLus it's a uniform school, so it's not like she can even wear a pumpkin shirt to school.

Suddenly Halloween has a whole new appeal to me. I don't know if I'm drawn to it because it's taboo, or just because I feel bad that Ellie won't get to enjoy a two week long celebration. Whatever it is, I'm suddenly in love with Halloween. Jill and I are re-instating the neighborhood Halloween party -- Janel and Casey are dying to help out I just know it! Monday I went out to Target and went Halloween crazy. We've been eating off of Halloween placemats this week and I can't wait for October 1st to put out my pumpkins. I love Halloween! Bring it on!!!

Same old thing

Yup -- the kids were sick this weekend. Ellie missed Friday with what ended up being Strep and Nate has Bronchiolitis. The good news is -- they're both on antibiotics, so we're not contagious. No running the other direction if you see us.

Of course I had a great day on Friday -- even with the kids hacking away. My girlfriend Lisa was down from Prescott to scrap and we went to the Euro Cafe for lunch. Everything at that place is good, but Lisa ordered the best appetizer! French fries and feta cheese. Oh my gosh -- it was so good. Next time you go there, you have to try it. And being the only other LDS liberal I know, we had great conversation. Thanks for going out with me Lisa! That night I scrapped with my girls. And I use the word scrap liberally. I managed to scrap 2 pages in between shopping, eating and talking. And I think I accomplished the most out of eevryone.

While I was out having fun, Dustin was stuck at home providing TLC for the little ones. He is such an awesome husband. I almost stayed home Friday night, but he told me to go out and have fun. What a sweetie. So now I have no idea how much medicine the kids need and when because Dustin did such an awesome job this weekend. Isn't it suppose to be the other way around?

Now we're off to pick up pizza for dinner and FHE with friends. Happy Monday

Package day!

So I ordered my Bridesmaids dress from J Crew back when I was in Virginia, but somehow it got lost and I've been waiting for it ever since. I'm so glad it got lost because it arrived the same day as all sorts of other stuff I've ordered, so I got a big old delivery from UPS today. I love getting good mail.

Here is the dress -- my nursing chest soooo does not fit in the dress! EEK! I had planned on weaning Sadie before the wedding, but now I really have to. The black thing is really just covering up the fact that I have a sports bra on, squishing my chest so I don't have the cleavage look like I walked out of a Jane Austen movie. I can't remember what my pre-Sadie chest was like! AHHH! It fits everywhere BUT the chest. Do I return it and order a size up just in case? Seriously people -- what do I do?


Sadie in her flower girl dress. She won't be wearing a bow at the wedding -- don't worry! For once she'll be bowless. Sadie is such a squirt I ordered her two sizes just in case, but I think I was right with the bigger size.



And Nate in his jacket. He looked at me like I was crazy when I was trying to get him to put it on. He really wanted his picture taken, so I told him I would only if he put it on. Bribery always works! Oh -- and this not for the wedding. Just for when we have to freeze our tushies off in Virginia in the winter.

Going way back for this one

We are really boring over here right now. I have lost all motivation to do anything. OK, not really, but we are super boring. I did make it to the gym after the guilt of eating cake and the cookies Nate made at Janel's all day yesterday. Both were delicious.

Yesterday I was teaching Art Masterpiece to Ellie's class, and the kids had to make a scene out of shapes. So I'm looking at the scene one of the little boys made and he's telling me all about it. "Here are some boats, and here is the bridge. . . and this is a building. Where they have funerals." Definitely a unique picture. So Dustin and I were laughing at how dark and twisted it sounded coming from a 5 year old, but there was probably some really simple explanation, like he went to a funeral over the weekend. And then it made me panic for all of the things my kids have said that have a perfectly logical explanation to us, but sound weird when you're hearing them.

So one day when I was driving Ellie and her friend somewhere, her friend starts talking about cars.
"We drive a Honda and my daddy drives a Honda too. We have two Hondas." Ellie asks me what Dustin drives, so I tell her he drives a Honda. She then gets giddy becasue we have a Honda just like her friend. Then her friend pops out, "Well, you're Daddy has a Honda like my daddy, but you drive a Saturn." Ellie looks at her like she's crazy and asks, "What's a Saturn?" Her friend explains that the car we're in is made by Saturn, so we don't in fact drive a Honda. Ellie, possibly saddened by this and not wanting to be associated with something as lowly as a Saturn then says, "I don't drive a Saturn. I drive a Hummer."

Ellie and Nate in their hummer

Nestle Tollhouse

One day when Dustin and I were dating, I wanted to make him some sugar cookies. I just used the sugar cookie recipe from my BH&G cookbook and the frosting recipe they listed. The frosting turned out gross and runny, so I called my Grandma to get her frosting recipe since I knew Dustin liked it. I just wrote the recipe down on a page in the cook book.

Fast forward to 9 years later. I made a cake for dessert tonight, but we didn't have any canned forsting and we were running low on powered sugar. Dustin was looking through some cook books we have to try and find a recipe that doesn't use a lot of powdered sugar. I told him just to half my Grandma's recipe since it's my favorite. Plus, every time I use it, I think of my Grandma who passed away almost 3 years ago.

Later on he's making he frosting, but he's on the wrong page, so I ask him why he's not using my Grandma's recipe.

Dustin: I am using your Grandma's recipe
Me: No you're not, I wrote her recipe on the next page
Dustin: Yeah, it's the same as the Buttercream recipe they have in the book.

WHAAAAATTTT? All these years I thought I had some super special recipe from my Grandma and it turns out to be the recipe from Better Homes and Garden! Not only that, it was in the same cook book as I wrote hers in. I am such a DORK! So we're having a good laugh out of it over here. And no I won't share it . . . it's a SUPER secret family recipe, shared only by me, my Grandma and anyone else who owns a Better Homes and Garden cook book published anytime in the last century or so.

It reminds me of one of my favorite Friends episodes, where Phoebe can't remember her Grandma's Chocolate Chip cookie recipe given to her by some French woman. . . Nestle Tollhouse.

Home Again!

This weekend, Sadie and I flew out to Virginia to surprise my sister. She's getting married in December and I wanted to come out and help with a few wedding things, plus she has never met Sadie. We definitely surprised her. My dad met her at the door with Sadie and she asked whose baby that was. My dad lied and told her it was some one from their Ward's baby and then I popped out. All of sudden she started screaming and jumping up and down. Of course then I started screaming and jumping up and down. And then we made Sadie cry.

Friday we just played with Sadie the rest of the day, went to the bridal store so I could see Kathleen in her wedding dress, and stayed up till midnight so I could attempt to keep Sadie on Arizona time. That plan failed miserably in case you were wondering.

Meanwhile back at the ranch: Nate and Ellie stayed at my girlfriend's house Thursday night and late Friday until Daddy got back in town.

Saturday we met with the wedding planner and finalized the menu and color scheme, looked at flowers, tried on the wedding dress again, got sized and ordered the bridesmaid's dresses, and found my mom a dress to wear to the wedding. My dad graciously sacrificed the joy he gets out of planning a wedding to stay home and take care of Sadie. What a guy!

Meanwhile back at the ranch: The kids slept in, got the car serviced, went to the grocery store and the gym, had donuts for breakfast, ice cream as a snack and McDonalds for dinner. It sounds like a rough life doesn't it? How will they ever survive if I go away again?


Sunday we went to church and vegged a little after the big day we had on Saturday and then my sister had to head back to Williamsburg.

After she left, we drove down to DC and walked around the FDR memorial and then took the walk around the basin over to the Jefferson Memorial. The weather was perfect and the memorials were practically empty, so we could really enjoy them. Of course Sadie was really impressed that we took her so many cool places. I just know it. I think her first sentence may be, "We hold these truths to be self evident. . ."

Meanwhile back at the ranch: Our college friends the Casabars were in town and I missed it! I am so bummed. They came over for dinner and the kids all played together. Their little girl Bria is Ellie's age and then they have two boys who sandwich Nate, so I guess they had a great time. I am seriously sad that I didn't get to see them.


Monday we went into Alexandria. I love that place. I want my parents to sell their house and move there because I think it would be so fun! For lunch we ate at this yummy Lebanese place and Sadie loved the hummus. I'm sure she's going to develop some sort of chick pea allergy from being exposed so young, but she was so cute eating the pita and hummus.

Our flight left at 6 and wouldn't you know, Sadie did not sleep for the entire 5 hours we were on that stinking plane. Little booger! Luckily she did play happily the whole time. I seriously thought she would zonk from the lack of sleep this weekend, but apparently that girl is the energizer bunny. If there is something new to see or do, she just keeps going and going. We finally got home around 9 last night and went straight to bed. I am exhausted!


Today I had planned on taking it easy and getting Sadie back on schedule, but Ellie received her Principal Award this morning, so I had to be at school by 8 am, all dressed and everything. So now I am home, Sadie is napping and I'm in need of some serious vegging.

Hope everyone had as much fun as I did this weekend!