Cooking and Cleaning...

The kids were playing really nicely and entertaining each other last night. So, I cooked my little heart out. I made homemade rolls, stuffed Chicken Parmesan, baked spaghetti squash, and a homemade tomato sauce to top it all off.


(Quick side note: I usually make this dish vegeterian with just the squash and marinara sauce and add fruit, sometimes fish). I'm telling ya, I was in the zone and didn't even notice what was going on around me.

I turned around from the stove and found a trail of debris starting underneath the microwave and going throughout the house ending in the chaos of what was once knows as the living room.



I really don't think the pictures do it justice. I serenely decided to ignore it until after I had completely enjoyed my dinner. Carlin wisely didn't say a word when he came home, just sat down and complimented my superb cooking.

Crafty me!

I often drool over wreaths at the stores. Especially ones that look like this:


They are so beautiful and so expensive. I can never bring myself to buy one.

Well, the other night we had a craft night at my house and I decided since I was hosting it I should probably attempt some craft. I went for a wreath.

And it turned out great!



Isn't it great?! I do need to tweak it a bit, but I was pretty pleased with it. I did what some of my friends and family suggested and looked at a couple of wreaths I loved and then tried to mimic the style on a wreath of my own.

It's so Fall-ish, I just LOVE this time of year.

P.S. You can find the store-bought wreath at Pier 1 for $44.95, mine was just a fraction of the cost coming in at about $12!

A Picture is worth a thousand words...

Our smiling-live-and-let-live Lillian.

"How did Lillian end up under the table?"


Our ornery-mischeivous-make-up-man Samuel.

What's my Secret?

See this:

Yep, it's a bowl full of rice, and gasp!, vegetables!

And now see this:

Yep, it's an empty bowl (mostly) of rice and vegetables.

No, I didn't throw any of this food out. Samuel ate it all. How did I get my kid to do this?

I let him help me cook dinner. He gets so excited to try the food he has prepared he will eat whatever is put in front of him (mostly).

I'm not sure how long this phase will last, but I always have marinara sauce or ketchup as a back-up. :)

Happy Birthday Dallin!

Let me introduce you to my brother Dallin. He doesn't get mentioned very often on my blog (a fact that he had to point out, that is once he realized I had a blog...).

23 years ago my baby brother was born into the world, and I would never again enjoy being an only child. In fact, I would never remember being an only child. Dallin has always been a part of my life. Many of you know him, but I would like to tell you about the Dallin I know.

When we were younger he loved: Power Rangers, hockey, Mighty Ducks, pretending to be a tap dancer in Mom's high heels, climbing (trees, walls, bookshelves, etc), video games, dancing and music, and his big sister. ;)

As he got older he had many "phases." There was the: skater phase, BMXer, Cowboy, mechanic, Masonry, and military... am I forgetting any? Funny enough, a little bit from each of these stuck and now you have one interesting person...

He has wanted to be many things: hockey player, drummer, tap dancer, policeman, truck driver, fireman... the list goes on.

He loves his sisters (of course, he wouldn't be the same without us), his parents, his beautiful wife, his friends, and his PS3.

He lives his life passionately. Dallin is an all or nothing type of person and is so passionate about everything that it is sometimes exhausting to be around him. He loves being an uncle and my kids love him.

Dallin and I are like night and day, I don't think you could possibly be more opposite than we are, but I love him. He is my brother and we've shared so many things together, that he has helped shape me into the person I am today.

Bronte Sisters Power Dolls

This made me laugh so hard. I just HAD to share:

Bestest Big Brother Ever

I had pictures to accompany this post, but someone (aka the bestest-big-brother-ever) has run off with my SD card and I cannot find it. So, you will have to just make do with my descriptions.

Samuel and Lillian love to play together. When Samuel wakes up in the morning, Lillian is the first person he seeks. Lillian has recently started to do this army crawl thing through the house and Samuel gets down on the floor with her and army crawls.

They love to play with the light-sabers (yes, from Star Wars, a relic from Carlin's childhood). Samuel gives Lillian the blue light-saber, because he is always green. While she slobbers the handle of the blue light-saber Samuel hits the green light-saber on the floor thereby making the effective noise to go along with it.

Samuel also loves to play cars with her, he surrounds her with the cars and then pushes her so that her body makes the cars go. This goes well until she gets a hold of one of the cars and puts it in her mouth, because everything goes into her mouth. At this point Samuel no longer wants to share his cars.

He also loves to push her around in the walker-thing-a-ma-jig. They often play in his room in which I am effectively kicked out, because Mom is just not cool enough for their games. They kick, squeal, and laugh together. It's so much fun watching them get along and I keep my fingers crossed that their friendship will continue as they get older.