Birthday Surprise

Last week my good friend asked me if I wanted to go to dinner Friday night - her husband would watch my kids. Of course I said yes! I called her Friday about an hour before I was supposed to be at her house so we could decide where we wanted to go. Because you know how it usually goes - I don't know, where do you want to go? That kind of thing. Well, she automatically said where we were going because it was close and good. I didn't think anything of it, I was just grateful someone had made a decision for me, I get tired of making all the decisions! We get to the restaurant and it's packed, people are waiting. She talks to the hostess and we walk right in - I just thought she had made a reservation. Then I saw someone from our church at a table. I tried telling my friend that there were people we knew there, but she was ignoring me. Then, we turn the corner and there are 16-18 or so people I know sitting at a table with a cake on it. Now I am thinking "why didn't we get invited to this party?" Then, they start singing Happy Birthday to me - that's when I finally figured it out! It was a surprise party for me! I feel SO incredibly blessed to have so many amazing friends in my life. It's truly a huge blessing to feel so loved and taken care of when all of my family (and husband) is thousands of miles away. Thanks to everyone for the birthday wishes! It was a great day.

The out-of-this-world chocolate cake!

My fun gifts.

Chocolate Molten Cake Oh MY!

The below picture isn't mine, but I just made these babies and holy smokes - they are SO GOOD! They are fast, easy and satisfied my chocolate craving. The recipe makes 4, so thankfully I was able to call my sweet neighbor out of bed to eat one (seriously, she came to the door in her bathrobe), so I didn't eat 2 and have them sticking out of my thighs tomorrow morning. I hope ya'll can make this and enjoy it like we did tonight! Oh, and we served it with vanilla ice cream.

http://thepioneerwoman.com/cooking/2009/07/molten-chocolate-lava-cake/

Free books??

How cool is this? Free books from Deseret Book.
http://deseretbook.com/free

Tyler's fun day

Last week the Bishop of our ward called and asked if he could take Tyler on a boy's day with him and his son. We have such a great ward, and our Bishop is seriously awesome. Tyler goes straight to the Bishop's office after primary every Sunday. He stays there for about 30 minutes - every Sunday. The Bishop plays the foot game and gives out prizes and candy. The prizes are hilarious. The Bishop has a bulletin board that he tacks paper bags to. The bag says "congratulations, you just won this junk from the Bishop's Desk." Brena has won a sprinkler head, toothbrushes from hotel rooms the Bishop has stayed at and other strange things. Tyler has won press pass cards from places the Bishop goes to for work, hot sauce packets...just funny things. But, they absolutely love winning those bags of junk! Needless to say, Tyler LOVES our Bishop. The Bishop and Nate picked Tyler up about 10:30 on Monday because there was no school. He was with them all day. They went to a thrift store just for fun, got junk food at the gas station, watched a movie and shot some hoops at the church.

Brena and I decided to do a girl's day. We ate lunch at Chick-fil-a and went to see The Princess and the Frog. We had a good time.

Brena and the toilet paper

I was in my bathroom doing my hair the other day and Brena was using the toilet. She starts complaining with this attitude in her voice that she doesn't like my toilet paper. I wish I could record her voice for you - it was SO funny. She has this really unique accent to her voice and it's just funny. Anyways here is how the conversation went:
Brena "Mom I hate this toilet paper! It's not toilet paper! It's just paper!!!"
Me: "Brena what are you talking about??"
Brena: "It's not smooth, I'm using the other bathroom, it has smooth toilet paper!"
Me: "Perfect - go use your bathroom."

So, the yellow brand tp (cheapest I can buy) is apparently "not smooth." The blue brand (still pretty cheap) is smooth.

El Salvador

Here I come!!!!!!! Yep, I have my tickets booked!! My wonderful mother-in-law has her tickets booked to come stay with the kiddos! I leave next month - 8 glorious days with my awesome hubby :) :) :)

He will still have to work, but at least I will get to see him. For 8 DAYS, with NO kids. I plan on lots of quiet time reading by the pool while he's flying.

Winter, blankets and soup

I've said it before, I'll say it again. I HATE being hot, hot weather, and humidity. I LOVE being cold - the colder the better. I wish I could live in Antarctica. My poor Floridian kiddos however, aren't doing so well in our "freakish" cold weather - as one news station puts it. It is FREEZING, literally. I don't think we have gotten over 40 degrees in almost 2 weeks now. It's kinda crazy! So my kids are living in their blankets and warm pj's and drinking lots of hot cocoa. Anything we have to read for school, we snuggle up in my bed under the covers. I wish it could last forever. Oh, and Brena said this morning "I wish there were no trees so it would snow all day." Do you ever wonder how their little brains think, and why they say the things they do? I sure do.

Because of our cold weather, I am wanting to eat lots of soup. I was reading a friend's blog the other day and she had posted they were eating this broccoli cheese soup in bread bowls from this site. I had to try it, it looked SO good. Let me tell you, holy cow - it's not just good - it's awesome!

The kids thought so too:

I do not have picky eaters - they will eat whatever is put in front of them. But I got a hug from Brena with a "thank you for making this Mommy." Now that means it's really good!

Give me S'more!

When we were in Colorado last Christmas (2008), my Grandma and I went to the LQS. They had these fabrics on clearance, so Grandma and I each bought a set. My Grandma has already made 2 quilts out of her material. I am just now getting my one quilt put together. This material is SO stinkin' cute - isn't it?? The little marshmallow snow men are s'mores! This is a twin size quilt, and I will be keeping it for us. I can't wait to snuggle up under it. Especially since we haven't even hit 40 degrees here yet today! I can't believe the cold weather we've had here the last week or so. I'm lovin' it, the kids and I spend lots of time snuggling under my covers on my bed reading books. We drank all our hot cocoa. And, for the first time in my life I bought me a pair of sweat pants and I'm wearing them every day. It's fun to bundle up for once!

New chapter in our life

If you are on goodreads with me, this probably won't come as any surprise. However, if you had told me just 1 year ago I would be homeschooling - I would have thought you were nuts! I have never even considered homeschooling - I thought it was weird (sorry!). Almost a year ago I started talking to a Mom at Brena's ballet class. She is a Mom of 4 and homeschools them all. I couldn't get the things that we talked about out of my head. I thought about it ALL the time. I thought I wanted to homeschool, but I didn't know where to start. And, I was too scared. Scared I didn't have enough patience, scared I wouldn't be able to teach my kids everything they needed to know. Scared to lose my new found Independence with both of them in school now. Well, after months of promptings to homeschool (and a little boy who begged everyday to homeschool), I started reading some books. I read The First Year of Homeschooling Your Child by Linda Dobson. It was awesome. I really, really connected with things she said. One thing I will never forget reading in there is that Public School takes time away from the Family. The other book that was recommended to me by a good friend who homeschools was The Well-Trained Mind by Susan Wise and Jessie Wise. This is what pushed me over the edge. I thought I would start to homeschool next year. The last day before Christmas Break, I was in Tyler's classroom volunteering. I talked to his teacher, crying the entire time, and told her Tyler wouldn't be coming back after Christmas. She was so supportive! She thought it was a wonderful idea and even mentioned she wishes she could homeschool her own daughter. That really made me feel better - but I already knew I was doing the right thing. So, here we are. It's day 2 and we are having a blast. There are many, many reasons I have chosen to do this. One, I have never felt comfortable with the Government running my child's education - that's probably the number one reason. But a very close second would be that I don't get to see my family much anymore. With homeschooling we can go wherever we want, whenever we want - and that's what I'm really looking forward to. Brenalee is still in preschool, and she will finish this year up there. But next year I will have them both home with me. I'm so excited!

Papa and the P3

My Dad wanted to build a model P3 with Tyler while he was here. It was A LOT of work. My Dad spent lots of hours building and painting it. I wish I had remembered to take a before picture right when it came out of the box. It was just plastic pieces - some very small pieces. I don't know how my Dad even put it together. Here is one of the beginning pictures:

It looks like a plane now:

Getting closer:

My Dad hung it from Tyler's bedroom ceiling:

Isn't it amazing?? I told Tyler when he goes to bed he can pretend Daddy is in his plane watching over him. He liked that.

Christmas

All I wanted for Christmas was my husband. Santa didn't bring him. But, my parents were here for a week. Christmas went way too fast this year. That's good in a way, but it is my absolute favorite time of year. I love everything about Christmas. I had to go pick up some stuff from my friend's garage Christmas Eve. As I drove over there I was crying. It was really hard not to have TJ around for Christmas. We were apart our very first Christmas as newlyweds in 1997, because of a deployment. This is only our 2nd Christmas we have spent apart - and it was the kids' first away from Daddy. We enjoyed the week with my parents a lot. I put both of them to work. It seems like there is still so much to do in the house! Here is a picture of Christmas Eve after the kids opened their pajamas from Daddy and Mommy:

Before the kids woke up:

Tyler ate a lot of chocolate that morning:

Brena putting on a little too much make up:

The true meaning of Christmas

I get to talk to TJ a lot, it's wonderful. If you would have told me 12 years ago (when TJ was on his first deployment in 1997) that I would be talking to/seeing my husband on a computer on his deployment 12 years from then (in El Salvador for heaven's sake!!) - I would have thought you were nuts! But, we do. We use Skype and our webcams, and we talk A LOT. In fact, I don't get much else done around here because we talk so much.

Yesterday during one of our many conversations I asked him what he had been doing. He casually mentioned he had gone to an orphanage. This is so totally my husband - he never, ever will brag about himself or bring any kind of attention to anything good he has done. He is a very humble, modest guy. I asked him what he did at the orphanage. He said some of his squadron had gone there and delivered Christmas presents to the orphans. This touched my heart in a big way. Here are some pictures (that I had to cajole him to get from another guy who took them):

The Orphanage. Tin roof, no a/c in very hot weather. It is hard to imagine people live like this! TJ said a tin roof is a good house, some people just live in the bushes.

He said there were "lots of cuties there." He was right:

My husband doing something he does well: playing sports!

The part that broke my heart was that they didn't have enough presents for all the kids. I guess there were kids visiting from other orphanages. So, there were more kids there than they thought there would be. TJ said they will be going back when they celebrate Three Kings Day in January, to deliver more presents.

Basketball

Tyler loves to shoot hoops. He has been begging for a basketball hoop for about 3 months now. We just weren't able to find the time to go get one when TJ was here because of all the other stuff that had to get done. Then, I couldn't get one by myself, because I didn't know how I would load/unload it, etc. My parents are here visiting for Christmas, so I knew it was the time to get Tyler his hoop. I have such fond memories of shooting hoops out in my front yard when I was younger. I hope Tyler will have good memories too. I know when TJ comes home, they will have a blast with it. I have been out there playing with him and I have forgotten how fun it is to just shoot around.

Goodwill

Not the Christmas type of Goodwill, but the store! There is a Goodwill right by Brena's preschool. Sometimes when I've got a few minutes to spare I pop in there to check things out. Well, I TOTALLY scored the other day. Check this out:

1 practically new princess scooter and 2 pairs of BRAND NEW shoes! The white pair even lights up :) $1.99 for each thing! I couldn't believe my good luck - and that they were Brena's size too!

I know I keep promising pictures of the new house, sorry about that. I do hope to get to that soon. But, hey - here's a picture of the floor for ya'll! I hope to get better about blogging!

Halloween - finally!

Yes, I realize it is December 2, and I am just now posting Halloween pictures. That's just how I roll now. Here is a little synopsis of how our Halloween went. Brenalee begged to be a witch for Halloween. I kept trying to convince her to just wear one of her many princess dresses. I am all about making things as simple as possible nowadays. Tyler, a boy after my own heart says "I'll just wear my karate uniform Mom." Sweet. So, I find a witch costume for $5 and make Brena super happy that she can be a witch. Mind you, it wasn't all fun and games trying to find a witch costume that was cute, and for the amount of $ I was willing to spend. But, being the bargain shopper I am, I found it. So, we get to our friends' house to go trick-or-treating. Guess what the 3 other little girls are wearing?? Yep, you guessed it, their princess dresses. So, here's Brena's face when she sees them in their princess costumes:

She is throwing a complete fit because she can't be a princess. I, of course, am exacerbated by her and tell her she is a witch, not a princess (meaning costumes of course!). Of course the other Moms feel bad for her and tell her she can wear one of the girls other princess dresses. I am not one to give into my kids. I don't want spoiled brats on my hands. But, she did get her way. But only after I made her smile and be happy for a couple of pictures in her witch costume:

Now, she's finally happy in the princess dress - and I'm out $5. Girls!