We're not "lion" when we want to wish ya'll a Happy Halloween!!!

Question???

So Jamie made this post in relation to my post on mom jeans. After thinking for a while, I discovered I do have 2 splurges...hair care and face care.

That being said. I am almost out of my face wash and as I sit and stare at myself in the mirror, I wonder..."do I look my age," " do I look older than my age," " what am I going to look like in 10 years"-- Has the skin care system I've been dedicated to for years been working? Is there something better than I've been using and I just doni't know about it?

I mean you've all met people whom you just assume are older than you and you are flabergasted when you find out they are your age or even younger!!

I don't want to be one of those people..I want young looking skin FOREVER and I'm willing to shell out a pretty penny for face wash, moisturizer, serum or anything else that might make that happen.

So, my question to you is what skin care system do you use and LOVE? I need to know....I need to re-evaluate my skin care system before the "big" birthday comes up next year. I don't want to look my age, I want to look younger!!

Talk to me....what are your secrets and favorite skin care products?

You Go Time Out!

I got put into time out yesterday (twice) by my 3 year old son. It went something like this.

Gibson: "Mommy, come play with me"

Mommy: "Just a second, I'm dusting"

Gibson: "MAAMMy, come play with me"

Mommy: "Just a minute bud, I need to finish this"

Gibson: "I gonna count to 3 and then you get spanking and go to time out- is that what you want?"

Mommy: "what?"

Gibson: "1 2 3" {walks over, taps me on the back and then points to time out chair}

Mommy: dumbfounded and trying not to laugh goes to time out chair

Gibson: Walks over to microwave and pretends to fiddle with setting clock

Mommy: Thinks to herself "if he really makes me sit here for 1 minute for every year that I am, I could actually take a power nap and still have time to chip the paint off my toes"

Gibson: Walks over to Jared {who is keeping his back to me trying to keep in the snorts he's laughing so hard} and proceeds to tell him "don't talk mommy, she in time out"

It happened again today when I wouldn't join him at the fountain at the Mall. The sad thing is, he's saying it 100% correct. That's exactly what we tell him when he's getting in trouble and now, it's coming back to bite us.

At least we know he's paying attention!

Irish Twins!!

My brother Jason and his wife Jennifer welcomed their son, whom they named Cooper, into the world today!!

For those of you who may not know their story, let me give you a readers digest version.

Jason and Jen have been married for almost 11 years. They tried to have a baby for about 9 years. They had several failed attempts with IVF and decided to adopt. Last year on October 23, their daughter Addison Maline was born. They received the call late one night and early the next morning they were off to pick her up. They stopped at the store long enough to buy a book of names and a carseat! Addie has been the light of their lives. She has brightened their world and has quickly become the princess in our family.

Who would guess that when Addie was 3 months old, Jen got pregnant!! After 9 years of not being able to...BAM, newborn and morning sickness!

Cooper was born today, Oct. 22. Addie turns 1 tomorrow, Oct. 23. We officially have a set of Irish Twins in our family and we couldn't be happier! (I think it's very fitting that my brother have Irish Twins since he lived in Ireland for 2 years:)

Congrats Jason and Jen! I can't wait to see this little guy. Keep him little until I can get there!

Tomatoes + Peppers = Fresh Salsa!!

My neglected garden caught my eye the other day and it happened to be exploding with tomatoes. Ripe, ready to eat tomatoes.

Gibson and I got busy picking them and when we were done we had enough to make a fresh batch of salsa. I also found some peppers, zucchini and squash in the garden as well.

Every September/October when the tomatoes are peaking, my dad is in the kitchen making salsa. Yummy salsa. If you enter my parents house during the salsa making time you'll enter an oven (it gets SO hot in the kitchen) and you'll run into the sweet aroma of a batch of salsa simmering on the stove.

Now, since I had all of these tomatoes I called up my dad to find the secret to making a great salsa and as he gave me step by step instructions, I quickly realized why I have never made the kind of salsa he makes. Wow, what LOVE he puts into his salsa. I didn't have the patience to make his salsa so I took his ingredients and threw them in a pot, simmered and tasted and this is my version of salsa.

Since I had so many tomatoes, I decided to make 2 batches of salsa. One I cooked and simmered and the other was a fresh, chunky salsa from a recipe my SIL Jen gave me.

I have to admit I enjoyed the fresh, chunky salsa better. I think I made the other one too sweet for my liking and didn't use enough hot peppers but the fresh chunky salsa was yummy. Here's the recipe. My SIL calls it "Hot Nanny Salsa" (there's a story behind it but I'm not sure what it is), my other sister calls it "Moab Salsa" and I've heard it called a few other names as well.

Tomatoes, Can of Corn (drained), Can of black eyed Peas (drained), Avocado (cubed), onion (the recipe calls for green onion but I like red onion better), cilantro and Italian Dressing. Throw it all together, chill for a few hours and enjoy!

So this picture has nothing to do with salsa but I had to include it. PLEASE tell me this is not MY child eating celery from the garbage can......
Ugh. Such issues I have with garbage cans. I can't stand a little one that goes under the sink (I refuse to change it a million times a day), I can't stand to stick it in my pantry (yuck), so it sits at the end of the bar- out in the open for all to see. I had a stainless steel one that had a lid but couldn't stand that it was circular and couldn't fit odd sized things in it.

So, until I get my new house and can design my kitchen with a drawer that's large enough to fit a garbage can- I guess I'll have to be a little more diligent at making sure the food on the top of the garbage pile is fresh enough to eat:)

HOMEMADE OREO COOKIES

I made these twice last week for two different functions. I had forgotten how good they are!

Cookie

1 box Devils Food Cake Mix

3/4 cup shortening

2 eggs

Mix well and roll into balls and bake for 8 minutes at 350. Let cool completely before trying to add frosting or else the frosting will just melt out!

Frosting

1 8oz cream cheese softened

1 stick butter softened

3-3 1/2 cups powdered sugar

1 tsp vanilla

Food coloring (optional of course)

Mix cream cheese and butter together. Add in powdered sugar until you get desired consistency.

Match up 2 cookies that are the same size. Add some frosting in the middle. This batch I rolled cookies in sprinkles for a little extra flare.

Makes about 15 cookies

I always double the recipe since they seem to go so fast! Enjoy!

mom jeans

mom jeans

So my jeans weren't THIS bad but yes, they are bad. I think I need to clean out my closests a little bit more often!

The GOOD news and the BAD news......

So I was looking for something to wear today as I was heading out to have LUNCH with some friends- so fun....I'm in the process of transferring clothes so my closet is a mess. I was digging to find some jeans and "Oh, I was wondering where these jeans were" I said to myself as I pulled a pair out of the back. "I wonder if I can fit into them"-- SO the GOOD news is.... THEY FIT!! Oh, insert happy dance.....

The BAD news is.... THEY ARE TOTAL MOM JEANS.... you know the ones I'm talking about. The ones that Stacie and Clinton from TLC's WHAT NOT TO WEAR tell you not to wear. They hit me above my belly button, are tight in the butt (not in a good way) and well, yes, they are slightly tapered plus they are a light denim wash. I swear they were in style when I purchased them.

My goodness, how long has it been since I've worn these jeans?? I remember when I bought them because I paid a pretty penny for them and we were in dental school so money was tight but I wanted ONE good pair of jeans and now, what do I do??? Do I wear them since I live in a small town and no one is going to notice since many of the town folks buy their clothes at our local Wal-mart or do I discard them taking my wearable pants down one (when in actuality I was excited because I had just increased my pant selection)??

I mean, I am a MOM so technically I can wear them and get away with it, right?

FaLL fUN

We love fall at our house. There's something about the smell when you first turn on the furnace, the warmth of socks on your feet and the crispness in the air as the journey to the car becomes a little quicker.

We love to kick off fall by going to visit a pumpkin patch, drinking hot cocoa and sampling autumn goodies.

We found a fabulous pumpkin patch/corn maze and had a wonderful time. The weather was a bit chilly but I quickly found the hot cocoa and kettle corn and Gibson and Jared got busy bouncing so we all warmed up.

The pumpkin patch had a kid area with all sorts of fun things to do. There were slides made from large plastic pipes, a watering hole where you could race ducks up and down some PVC pipe, a corn box (just like a sand box but made from large corn kernals), a mini track where you could drive tricycles around, a cow train and then there was the jumping pillow!


Gibson LOVED the jumping pillow and it was actually quite fascinating. It was this HUGE parachute like thing in the ground that inflated and you could jump on it. Gibson and Jared had so much fun. We tried to get Gibson to the other activities in the kid area but he wouldn't leave the jumping pillow!

Well it didn't take me long to go for the food. Yummy! Kettle Corn is the best and Easton enjoyed some fruit puffs while I ate the kettle corn and we watched the pig races.

Easton didn't seem to mind the cold. Both of my boys love to be outside and once Easton figured out that the hat wasn't coming off he enjoyed it! He ate hay and watched all the excitement going on around him.
We didn't bring this pumpkin home. Instead we brought home two very small pumpkins for each of the boys. Gibson enjoyed sitting on them and posing for pictures.
Near the end I had to let Easton out of the stroller since it was taking Gibson a while to decide to let go of the jumping pillow. Easton crawled right up to the goats and watched in amazement. What else is a little kid to do other than try and lick a dirty, nasty, goat gate?? Yuck! He quickly went back into the stroller once he started pulling that trick!
Happy Fall Everyone!

Talent and Inspiration...

I firmly believe that to be a better person you should surround yourself with amazing and talented people. I have been lucky in my 29 years to have met amazing people along my journey of life. Some of these people have been in my life for a time, some a season and others a lifetime.

For example, there's my friend Amanda who was a surrogate with TWINS for her sister-in-law. There's Shelley who's eye for photography and willingness to teach is both inspirational and motivating. There's my friend Zipporah who's husband just returned from serving in Iraq. Of course I could go on and on with everyone who reads this blog. I am grateful for your friendships no matter if we talk on a daily basis or once a year. I am encouraged and taught by your actions, talents and spirit. Thanks for being YOU, thanks for being MY friend!

Another one of these amazing people I have met is the oh, so talented Becky Higgins. I met Becky when we both lived in Cleveland and have been lucky enough to keep in contact with her now that we've both moved and live in different states.

Becky has recently completed a new book and when she asked for pictures from many of her friends and family so that she could complete a layout for her new book, I of course submitted some.

I was so thrilled when she emailed me a copy of the layout she did for me, featuring my little angel Gibson! I am not a scrapbooker but it's one of those small things I wish I did. I wish I had the patience, creativity and eye for scrapbooking. I don't and until I find something that works for me, this is the only layout my son will have.

So thank you again Becky for including this layout in your new book. I just love it!

What I did today....

*Baked 24 potatoes for a Med Group Fundraiser
*Delivered 2 dozen cookies (I baked yesterday)and baked potatoes to fundraiser
*Put 30 miles on my car driving to and from base, to and from preschool and to and from relief society activity
*Loaded, emptied and loaded the dishwasher
*Paid a plumber a lot of $ to fix something I could have fixed but didn't know I could have fixed it until after I wrote the plumber a check
*Cheered as Gibson went #2 in the potty!!!! Yeah, no rinsing out underwear in the toilet for mom!
*Put away 5 pairs of shoes
*Vacuumed twice and should have vacuumed a third time
*Changed 6 diapers, 4 of them poopy
*Made 6 bottles, first one beginning at 5:30a.m.
*Read 150 pages of a book for book club
*Ate too much chocolate, didn't drink enough water and didn't exercise
*Picked up toys 3 times (remember I vacuumed or else I would have left them out)
*Went to RS Enrichment (ate more chocolate)
*Folded laundry
*Emailed and blogged a bit
*Found my kitchen table (yes, I am my mothers daughter)
*Talked to my sister, dad, MIL and my moms voice mail.
*Made three complete meals, and several snacks in between for two hungry boys

It seems like a did a lot today but WHY is my house a mess and I feel like I didn' t get anything accomplished?