Bread

I got a wheat grinder for Christmas...i know...my mom REALLY thinks I am Martha Stewart these days-I did decide that I will use it (it is absolutly FANTASTIC...I will no longer buy wheat at the store..well maybe some white but this thing is great!!!) ANYWAY to use it I decided that I Was going to make homemade bread for my family-which has been a work in progress for the past couple of weeks. My friend Emilee gave me a great tutorial...a one on one lesson to making bread. It looked easy smeezy ...so I came home and gave it a try- according to Emilee my "dough enhancer" wasn't very good, my bread was dense.ok...so I called up another friend Kate who said why don't you start off with my "really easy" recipe. Basically you dump everything in the mixer and it does all the work for you. That was easy...but then of course I let my bread rise too high so now it looks like I made pancakes instead of bread for my family. This task is proving very difficult...maybe I should just continue to make cookies and such with my wheat. But, since I have stubborn in my blood (thanks Dad...as it is a Martino trait I think) and I will not let it get the best of me. SO- although I already made 4 pancakes today...or loaves..I am going to make another batch right now. If it turns out, you might hear from me.... if it doesn't we will be eating alot of dense flat sandwiches for the next couple of weeks.

Date Night

We went out for our friend Jon's birthday on Saturday night and had a blast! We started out with dinner at P.F Changs (so delish) and then went over to Hooters (yes it was my first time in there...and they really weren't as scantily clad as what I thought they would be) anyway we went and saw "The Mentalist". It was a great show! He could supposidly "feel" things from your brain-and I thought he was full of it until he said:
"Is there a Samye out there?"
-yes
"Are you thinking about your dog Samye?"
-well no, I don't have one....
"What about your childhood dog buddy samye?"
-oh my gosh!


Yeah, somehow he totally knew all about my childhood dog... crazy right? He was good, and I would go see it again if given the chance!

Thanks Bailey's for the fun night!!!

What do you do?

As many of you know I want a dog. I do...and my husband finally wants a dog too (yippee). I grew up with dogs so I realize that they are like children (potty training, etc) and a lot of work. BUT what I didn't grow up with was living 1,000+ miles from family. So here is my question for all of you dog owners out there-what do you do with your dog when you go out of town? Do you put them in like a doggy day care? How much do those run? Or if you don't do that what do you do? I would love any help on this matter!!!

AND just in case you were wondering, my two favorite dogs right now are the Portugese Water Dog (just shaved short) and the Labrador. Yes i do like the bigger dogs.

Cute legs

I just love Bennett's chubby legs...and they look super cute when he is trying to wear Halle's heels around the house.

"Simply Amazing"

Have you noticed that I finally have some color on my blog? It looks simply amazing...the color, fonts used...everything! Hilary over at Simply Yours redid my blog for me and she did SUCH a great job! Her eye for colors and design is amazing (don't you think?)! So- head on over and check her out- she is so great and has some wonderful designs!! She will even make a design specifically for you if you aren't seeing what you want! (beautiful I know)! Thanks again Hilary- I LOVE IT!

One of those days

You know when you wake up in the morning thinking that it is going to be a great day? And then...your daughter has an explosion at the grocery store (ok... i can deal with this), your son CHEWS on your wood kitchen table leaving a tooth mark (no i don't think he is missing out on some type of vitamin), your daughter falls on the tile floor and forgets to put her hands out to catch herself so now she has a goose egg on her forehead AND to add to all of that your babysitter cancels at 2:30 to say she can't babysit because she has other plans that she forgot about?? (yes let us all let a huge sigh out because at least the kids are napping right now) BUT COME ON-blah... so now I have to go hunting for another babysitter...blah.

I think I might take the kids bike riding after snooze, because AT LEAST it is 65 degrees outside today- it could be a lot worse...i could live where it is 15 degrees outside and snowing.

Good pics

Remember when I took Bennett to get his one year old pictures? Yeah...crying....tears....snot...you know we had everything happening. I finally chose one with his eyes big, red, and puffy...tears are coming down his cheek...I know great memories right? Well we were at the mall on Tuesday and they were "running a deal" where you could get a free 10x13 if you just let them take your picture. I figured why not try for free right? And look what my little man decided to do:





I loved it! And of course after seeing these great pictures I got my free 10x13...did I get any more? nope! AND the best part is we got another coupon for a free 10x13...so we are going to do this again when we actually plan on getting pictures taken and bring Halle along all for FREE!

Bennett

See this cute man here?
Well for the past 3 weeks he has had (what I thought) was just this little cold. Lots of coughing... and sometimes a runny nose. Finally yesterday (after 2 nights of little sleep for both of us) I took him into the pediatrician. She took one look at him...did all the poking and prodding that they do and said "well he seems pretty healthy" (never mind the fact that his nose was dripping like a faucet) And that is when she asked the dreaded question "Do you have a family history of Asthma?" Both of my brothers have bad asthma... so yes I do. After picking up the medication, and the nebulizer- I just hoped that maybe the pediatrician was wrong. That after one treatment nothing would change and that he still just had a bad cold. After pinning him to me (you see they have to be sitting up) we had our first treatment...and the change was incredible. His eyes came back to life, the hacking cough that he had was almost gone, and he seemed back to his jolly self. So yes, Bennett now has asthma. I have mixed emotions at this time- yes I am glad they found what was bothering him, yes I am glad to get a full nights sleep again, and yes I am hoping that he will grow out of it. But no, I watched as both of my brothers battled asthma growing up, and I watched the scary things that asthma can do to ones body.... yeah so I am thrilled.

On another note Halle thinks it is pretty cool- Bennett gets to wear a dinosaur mask to take his medicine, he gets to sit in front of the tv and watch his favorite show, and then he gets to snuggle mommy (she thinks he is snuggling me....she doesn't know that I am actually pinning him down). I guess if you look at it optimistically there you go!

New Day

It was an exciting day at church today...although we did start our yearly duty of having church at 1pm (gggrrrr) We did have some exciting changes occur also- Halle went to her first day of "Sunbeams"...this is the big kid class she is no longer in nursery..sniff sniff AND because I am in the primary (where the kids are) and Dustin teaches Sunday school they let Bennett go to Nursery!! (Usually they wait until they are 18 months old) and I can't tell you the feelings I had when I watched my tubby man sit there and enjoy snacks with the rest of the dudes in his class. Did tears well up in my eyes...no....but boy did I want them to.

On another note is anyone else hitting the "my house now feels really empty because I no longer have Christmas decor up?" Boy... I feel like we are living in a museum...empty and kind of echos when someone is screaming (yes that does happen with two kids). So now I am in desperate need of some decor ideas for blank walls....there are a couple of sites that I absolutly adore
Like her pass all the Christmas stuff and check out her decor... or how about her . I know... I have a lot of sites that I love to follow... I mean have you seen her stuff lately?? Or how about this ? I know... I could go on and on and on... anyone have any ideas to share?? I know a bunch of you have recently moved into newer homes so maybe we are in the same boat? If anything I know I am going to hit up the new HomeGoods store opening up down the street and Kirklands very soon. Any other ideas? Do please share!

Christmas Day

Christmas morning was a blur, and due to a recent vacation it has taken awhile to get posted. We missed seeing family on Christmas this year but enjoyed staying home and getting ready for Santa to come.
Bennett got his first pickup truck (yes...we are originally from Texas) and he LOVES it. He has even figured out that you can sit in the bed of it while sister drives it around (dangerous...yes).

One of Halle's favorite gifts was the princess shoes...she even received matching blisters from wearing them too much. She wears them around the house all day, so I know when she is coming because I hear the "clunk clunk clunk" sound they make...occasionally followed by Bennett trying to wear them too.


We had such a great Christmas!! The new toys are great, the kids love to play in their rooms with all the new toys and I love it! We also got to enjoy skiing with my family up in Utah...and due to lapse of good judgement all pictures are with my parents-SO as soon as I get them I will share pictures of us skiing..and of Halle skiing (she did GREAT!) and all the other fun things that we did.