what do you do in the summertime?

A small glimpse into what we've been doing this past week. Easton is officially crawling and luckily Gibson signed on to be on "baby patrol" so I need not fear, Gibson is watching his every move and narrating it!

Gibson is 95% potty trained. We haven't had an accident for several days now. He's pretty good about going when he needs to but that being said, if we're outside he goes when he needs to- , so the lawn, the sidewalk, the car and even the slide at the park have all been watered properly:)

So what do WE do in the summertime? Ah, the possibilities are endless, we're just enjoying each and every day!

Chocolate Chip Brownie Torte

I would officially like to thank Stephanie for this recipe and for helping me successfully gain 10lbs in one evening! She posted this recipe on her blog and I had to try it! Can I just say Y-UM-M-Y!! (thanks for the picture too, we ate ours before I was able to snap a picture).

If you don't know by now, I am a serious chocoholic. Love it. Crave it. Gotta have it. Everyday. This will be made again and again at our house. So simple to make. Enjoy!


CHOCOLATE CHIP BROWNIE TORTE:
1 bag mini semisweet chocolate chips (2 cups)
2/3 cup butter
1 1/2 cups sugar
1 1/2 cups flour
1 tsp baking powder
1 tsp vanilla
1/2 tsp salt
4 eggs
FROSTING:
2 cups heavy whipping cream
1/4 cup powdered sugar
1 tsp vanilla
2 /3 cup reserved mini choco chips

Preheat oven to 350. line 15x10x1-inch pan with waxed paper or foil; spray with cooking spray. Reserve 1 cup of the chocolate chips for frosting and garnish. Melt butter and remaining 1 cup chocolate chips in saucepan over medium heat, stirring occasionally; remove from heat. Stir in sugar, flour, baking powder, vanilla, salt and eggs. Spread evenly in pan. Bake 18 to 23 min. Cool 10 minutes; turn upside down onto wire rack. Carefully remove waxed paper. Cool cake completely, about 1 hour. Make frosting. cut cake crosswise into 4 10x3 3/4-inch pieces. Trim off stiff edges of cake if necessary. Place 1 piece on serving plate; spread about 3/4 cup frosting over top. Repeat 2 times. Top with remaining cake piece. Frost sides and top with remaining frosting. garnish with reserved 1/3 cup chocolate chips. Cover and refrigerate at least 2 hours until chilled. Store covered in refrigerator. Frosting directions: Beat whipping cream, powdered sugar and vanilla in chilled medium bowl with electric mixer on high speed until stiff. Stir in chocolate chips.

Sydney and the terrible, horrible, no good, very bad day.

Oh, you know those days when you can't wait to get to bed. Oh, I had one of THOSE days yesterday. Let me tell you why.

Gibson is trying SO hard and is being SO good about going "pee pee in the potty"- however, a different story could be told about going "poo poo in the potty". He won't do it so he chooses to go in his pants. Oh, praise and wonderment goes to you moms who use cloth diapers. I could never do it. I was closing my eyes and trying not to gag as I rinsed out his underwear. The SECOND time he did it, dad was around and just threw away the underwear and even though I saw $1.99 enter the trash can, I was not complaining! Yuck!

My printer died...so I spent HOURS online and on the phone trying to trouble shoot it. Did you know that I had to pay $9.99 just to talk to someone on the phone to see if I could get it fixed? Oh, I was not happy about that but living in the small town that I do I had no choice. I paid it and then still had to take it to Boise today to get fixed (paying another $50 just for them to diagnose it).

My blowdryer died. Yup, I was blow drying my hair (which means I took a shower, yeah for that) and there was a pop and a puff of REALLY hot hair and it was dead. I swear it's not that old and I have no idea where a beauty supply store is in Boise so I guess we're using the travel one until I can find a replacement.

I went to the gas station to fill my almost empty tank and for some reason the gas station on base (which is the cheapest gas) hates my car. It will fill for 2 seconds and then click off, fill and then click off- it drives me crazy. You would think that after several times of it doing this I would catch on and not get gas there but nope, I still go and I leave after getting 2 gallons of gas and then have to go to another gas station and finish the process.

I grabbed our little point and shoot camera to snap so cute pictures of the boys and when I went to upload them they have this weird white smudge on EVERY picture, right in the middle. "What is this" I ask myself. Oh, yeah it would be a fingerprint of a small child who shall not be named to protect his small self. It's really cute when he's carrying around the camera and saying "smile mommy" but I'm not finding it that cute when there's smudges on all my pictures. I know, I know....put the camera away. Consider it done!

My freezer is absolutely packed. With two shelfs and the entire door lined with breast milk bags, everything else is stuffed in there like sardines. So I literally throw something in the freezer and slam the door so that when it falls, it will fall against the closed door and not on my toes....well I didn't see the fingers of a small child. Oh, I felt horrible.

Speaking of breast milk. I'm winding down and can you say uncomfortable......

Oh, it was one thing after another yesterday. From not having the right ingredients for dinner to getting sweet potatoes spit on me by a darling 8 month old who likes to do raspberries. I LOVE being a mom and even if I move to Australia like in the book, Alexander and the terrible, horrible, no good, very bad day, I'm guessing they have bad days too.

Update: Today was much better!

Headbands and Flower Barrettes

I work with the young women in our church and tonight's activity consisted of making headbands and flower barrettes. The girls had a great time and we only ended up with one burnt finger from the hot glue gun!

Super easy to make. I got the idea from Heidi Swapp several months ago and figured this was a great excuse to get girly and crafty!

To make the headbands all you need is ribbon, elastic, either a sewing machine or a needle and thread and a cute flower and button for accent. Measure your head for the ribbon and leave about 1 1/2 inches of space. Then cut about 1 1/2 of elastic but sew it on so that there's about an inch of elastic showing. The other 1/2 inch will be where you've sewed. You want it a little snug so that it stays on your head but that's why you use elastic so that you have a little stretch as you put it on and off!

Hot Glue the button to the flower and then the flower to the headband and you've got yourself a headband!

The flower took all of 2 seconds to make. Find your flower, cut it so it's flat on the bottom and glue to barrette! TA DA, ultra cool and super cute!

I'm very excited to have a few more accessories for my hair! Since my hair always ends up in a pony tail by the end of the day, I can at least add a flower so it "looks" like I attempted to get ready!

A quick trip

So Easton and I just returned from a quick trip to Utah over the weekend. My little sister Chana had a bridal shower and I was lucky enough to get to fly home to be there. It was a very busy 48 hours and I was able to enjoy some shopping (Target, Tai Pan, Deseret Book), some yummy food, got my hair done, saw my grandparents, a few aunts and even snuck in a Sunday nap.

Easton did awesome on the plane. We took this picture since it was his first time flying. Doesn't he look petrified?


Here are the happy couple. Chana and Fred. Fred was a trooper to come to the shower and to be introduced a million times over. I'm sure he's not complaining since they were pretty spoiled!
So my extra talented SIL who's 7 months pregnant whipped up this quilt in a matter of days. So cute! This picture doesn't do it justice, it's adorable and made me completely jealous (not too jealous since she made me one when I got married) but really made me want to get out the sewing machine!

We wanted to see what my niece Addie would look like with long hair.... I think she's going to be pretty cute! (Thanks Erin for supplying the hair)

You might be wondering where Gibson was?? Well he got to stay home with dad. I think they had a great weekend "bonding". I know they went to McDonalds, the park, Wal-mart, Subway and then stayed up until the wee hours of the morning watching Bob the Builder and eating junk food. (I wasn't surprised to hear that Gibson was feeling a little under the weather and took an extra long nap.)

So that's two trips to Utah in 3 weeks! Yikes, it's a good thing we live close. The next trip is in 3 weeks when we return for the wedding....good times.

A "Roaring" good time at Roaring Springs!

What a great day we had today. We took the boys to the water park Roaring Springs and enjoyed a great day in the sun. Gibson couldn't get enough of the kiddie area and we could barely keep up with him as he zipped from slide to slide or swam around like a fish.

Easton loved the water too. He splashed and laughed and loved the loud noises and bright colors. He slept most of the day and I think he was pretty sad because when he woke up he was ready to play but by that time Gibson was ready to leave.

We're already looking forward to next year when Gibson will be tall enough to ride the larger rides and Easton will be walking and able to enjoy more than the edges of the wave pool.

But for this year, I think we're good with our water activities. The city pool closes this weekend and I'm okay with packing up my swimsuit for another season:)

I've been tagged

Tresure tagged me....so here ya go.

4 jobs I've had
1)Bank Teller
2)Escrow Officer
3)Assistant to the Dean at CWRU School of Law
4)Real Estate Agent

4 movies I could watch over and over
1)Step Up
2)The Holiday
3)Sweet Home Alabama
4)Girls Just Want to Have Fun :)

4 Places I've lived
1)Springville, UT
2)Vienna, Austria
3)Cleveland Heights, OH
4)Colorado Springs, CO

4 Favorite TV Shows
1)The Office
2)Ugly Betty
3)Grey's Anatomy
4)Anything Reality....I'm a sucker

4 Places I've been on Holiday
1)Cancun, Mexico
2)Myrtle Beach, SC
3)Caribbean Cruise
4)Smoky Mountains, TN

4 Favorite Dishes
1)Chocolate anything with a side of chocolate
2)I love good Mexican
3)Roast & Potatoes with homemade rolls
4)Anything made with sugar or high fructose corn syrup (you know you agree)

4 websites I visit
1)blogs
2)playhousedisney.com
3)gmail.com
4)cnn.com

4 Places I'd like to be
1)Anywhere ALONE with Jared
2)Hawaii
3)Disneyland
4)Back in Europe

Tag, you're it....
1)Zipporah
2)Heather W.
3)Jamie W.

35 Condies + A Whole Lot of Food + Fresh Mountain Air = A Whole Lot of Fun!!

This past weekend we drove to Utah for the annual Condie family reunion. This is the second year we have our annual family reunion at Heber Valley Camp. What an incredible place to hold a family reunion. I'm not much of a camper but this is my kind of camping! Cabins, flushing toilets, running water and showers.

There were 35 Condie's that were able to make it this year. We were only missing 1 spouse and 3 grandkids! Don't you love our matching shirts?? We were a wave of red fury! It was much harder to tell each other apart since we all matched. (Mayumi, Craig's daughter kept going up to Jared and saying da da)!

Of course we ate a lot. There was some yummy food! Amy made an awesome Apple Crisp and Renee brought up a homemade pound cake. So with cookies, candy and eating 3 square meals a day---we didn't go hungry!

We had 3 cabins to split between the 35 of us. Each cabin consisted of wooden bunkbeds and plenty of space. I can't say we received a great nights sleep....with Jared and Craig snoring, Emilee on a squeeky air mattress and Easton waking up twice...but we survived!
Gibson has two cousins within a few months of him. Katie is 3 months older and Sam is 1 month younger. Gibson had a great time with his cousins and took extra liking to his cousin Katie. They did everything together all weekend and as she drove away on Saturday Gibson cried out "oh no, my Katie."

Katie and Gibson enjoying some watermelon

Easton was a great boy the entire trip. He spent many of his awake hours either in a stroller or a pack-n-play. He enjoyed watermelon for the first time, licorice and bacon.

With a family of 8 kids, it seems like there is always someone pregnant! Right now there are 22 grandkids and we're waiting for the arrival of 4 more. But wait you say, there are only 3 pregnant women in this picture. Alas I say, Renee (the one on the left) is pregnant with TWINS! She's due next month, Emilee is due in December and Cassie is due in February.

We participated in a challenge course and had a great time! The highlight of the course was a zipline. We had to climb up a wooden pole, walk across a wooden log and then we zipped down into the trees. It was incredible to see all of our young nieces and nephews have no fear and do the zipline. Gibson's too buddies Katie and Sam (both 3) had no fear in climbing the steep pole and then zipping down. I thought it was very brave until I did it and realized how SCARY it really was! Those young kids were amazing!

We had water time at Legacy Waterfront. We were able to do paddle boats and canoes. We didn't make it very far across the lake since Gibson was steering and we ended up going in a circle for the majority of the hour. We weren't complaining since he was having fun!

My sisters-in-law organized a craft time for the kids and this may have been Gibson's favorite part of the weekend. He had a blast painting his bird house and Christmas ornaments.

It was a great reunion. It was wonderful to be in the mountains again and Gibson couldn't get over the stars in the sky. It's great having such a wonderful family

bUsy, BuSy, busY

We love naps at our house. There's a great childrens book called "The Napping House" which we just love because that's us! We had a very busy day today and I wasn't home to put Gibson down for a nap. He did really well and played and played and played but around 4:30 he told me "mom, I tired." I told him to climb on the couch and take a rest (thinking he'd say no and continue playing) but 5 minutes later I looked over and he climbed up on the couch and was sound asleep! He didn't even wake up when Jared got home! I'm such a stickler on naps that I think this poor boy counts on them to recharge for the remainder of the day!
Gibson loves stickers. It's our secret weapon at church so I always have lots on hand. Well, Mr. G found the stickers from our church bag and covered his bike with them. I hope this doesn't mean he's going to be into bumper stickers. Then again, he'll probably be driving our '97 Honda Civic so he may need some bumper stickers to hide the rust and dents!

Not to brag but Gibson is very musical. He can carry a tune and is very good with the drum. He hasn't played with this drum for months but all of a sudden it's his favorite toy. He is the drummer and then hands each of us an instrument. Even Easton gets to participate. His favorite song is Twinkle, Twinkle little star.

It's hard to believe that Gibson will be 3 next month. He seems to be getting smarter and smarter and his vocabulary is increasing each day. He's the sweetest little boy and is always telling us he loves us.

Yummo: BBQ Chicken Pizza

So my friend Sarah introduced me to this pizza a few years back and I just love it! It's so simple to make and yet so yummy that everytime I make it I wonder why I don't make it more often! Sadly enough, it's so yummy that Jared and I can finish off this whole pie in one sitting:)

BBQ Chicken Pizza

Pizza Crust- I used the Betty Crocker, just add water pizza crust for this pizza but I really like the Pillsbury pizza dough that comes in the fun tube you get to open. I've also made it using Boboli crusts. Whatever you like or have on hand!

2 chicken breasts- If I'm making them just for this pizza I'll cook them in BBQ sauce but if I have some precooked then I just cube them and stir in BBQ sauce and let them sit while I assemble the rest of the pizza.

Cilantro- 1/4 bunch, chopped finely

Red Onion-thinly sliced

Cheese- LOTS OF IT. I usually have Mozzarella on hand so that's what I use but it's also good with Provolone or Gouda.

BBQ Sauce.

So spread some BBQ sauce on your pizza dough. Top with onion, cilantro and chicken and cover with cheese. Cook in 450 oven for about 12 minutes until crust is brown and cheese is melted. Enjoy!!