Day 31 of 31: Calling

This morning attended my in-law's ward. We were able to support my father-in-law as he was called to be the Bishop. I know that the "Lord qualifies whom he calls" and I know he will be blessed, and his ward will be blessed as he serves in this calling. We love you, Benji, and hope that we can support you as you serve.
The boys are super excited to have a Papaw that is a Bishop!
Parker did tell him, "Papaw, you won't be able to hunt now that you are a Bishop!" Ha! I don't think that will be entirely true! Like that would stop him from hunting! I know he'll find a way!

Day 30 of 31: Patience

I think Paisley could teach me a lot about patience. She sat still and let me put curlers in her hair after bath time tonight.

Day 29 of 31: Ready or Not

It's almost Halloween!
Are you ready for sweet treats and no tricks?
This little girl sure is. :)

Day 28 of 31: trouble

You would think by the look on Paisley's face, she knows she's doing something that she shouldn't be, and she got away with it. Like--for instance--running through the gutter after a rainstorm.

{For your information-- none of the kids got in trouble. This was a moment when I had to bite my tongue and let the kids have fun, and well, just be kids!}

Day 27 of 31: Friends

The bird a nest, the spider a web, man friendship.

William Blake

Day 26 of 31: Fall?

As our AC is running today, it's very muggy outside, high of 79 degrees, and the ferocious mosquitoes refuse to go into hibernation, we hope you are enjoying your cool Fall weather, wherever you may be!

Day 25 of 31: Pumpkins

Day 24 of 31: Sweet Pea

Dear Miss Paisley,

You are growing up so fast! I can't believe I need to start planning your birthday party. I remember when you turned one: we had a nice party planned and you had the swine flu! This year, please don't get the swine flu.

Here are some things that you love:

♥ Books
♥ The color pink
♥ Your cherry/silky night gown
♥ Saying Mommy, Mommy, Mommy, Mommy
♥ Your brothers
♥ Juice
♥ Singing "Popcorn Popping"
♥ Your blanket
♥ Pretzels
♥ Dancing
♥ Coloring
♥ Babies

You are such a sweet little girl. A little dramatic sometimes, but sweet. I love you so much!

Day 23 of 31: Eclipse

Since I never got around to posting about the night Eclipse came out, I thought tonight is as good a night as any!

I was completely bummed that I couldn't go to the movie with my girls, and that I wasn't able to host my annual Twilight inspired party.....

.....but it was a super fun night!

Ben surprised me with flowers:





Beth's husband watched the kids for us so we could go out for appetizers and desserts before the movie started!

I'm not sure why, but this next picture cracks. me. up.


We thought we were getting to the theater in plenty of time.....apparently not! We were 3rd to the last group in line! Eek!

Beth and I got seats together, whereas Mom and Karalyn had to find random seats!

I can't wait until Breaking Dawn comes out. Why do we have to wait another year?

Day 22 of 31: aMAZEing

Day 21 of 31: growing up

As hard as it is to have 3 little ones running around all. the. time. I wouldn't change anything. They are best friends, and I know as they grow older, their bond will grow even stronger. I am so grateful for these kids. I love them so so much!

Day 20 of 31: Tis the Season

*These pictures may or may not be out of focus. You may or may not need to go get your eyes checked! It's up to you.


Sitting in Daddy's tree stand, waiting for the big buck to come along:




To most kids the toy in Parker's hand would be a stick horse. But to him? A gun!

Day 19 of 31: Oldies but Goodies

These pictures have been on my camera, yes taking up the memory on my camera for the past 4 1/2 years! I didn't realize they were on there until I went to take pictures, realized my memory card wasn't in there, and saw these! Parker hasn't change a bit!

Boo!

Personalize funny videos and birthday eCards at JibJab!

Day 18 of 31: Crabs

*they stink
*the boys were fascinated with them, until they tried to come out of the bucket
*we did NOT eat them for dinner
*they will be used to catch fish tomorrow

ugh!

So, my baby is about the size of a spaghetti squash and weighs almost a pound, and I have yet to not be stressed out about a name. I know I have 155 more days to go {but who's counting} and that gives me plenty of time to come up with a name and I shouldn't be worried about it at 11:30 at night when my over tired pregnant body could be tossing and turning in bed trying to find a comfortable position instead of wasting time on the computer. You like my run-on sentence? Scanning all the baby naming websites, I shouldn't be surprised that they have all. the. same. names. Not much of a selection of "P" names, no offense Pam, Penny, Peggy and Mom {Phyllis}. And to make matters worse, I don't think Ben has this much of an obsession about finding a name for our daughter. I mean, do you really think he's losing sleep over it? I think not.

Day 17 of 31: target practice

Last week the boys had fun shooting their guns. Paisley didn't like it so much.

Day 16 of 31: Attack

Like father, like son. Period.

Day 15 of 31: PIZZA!!!!!

But not just any old pizza is sitting on MY kitchen table........


The first of MANY take and bake pizza's from Papa Murphy's! MANY, I tell you. My favorite place to eat EVERY time I go home to Idaho---now here in Va Beach! I'm so extremely excited! Now, I guess I don't need to move to Idaho. :)

Day 14 of 31: New Dishwasher!!

Putting Parker to work!

Day 13 of 31: Cookies

How can you not want to make cookies when you have a super cute cookie jar to put them in?

I tried out a new peanut butter cookie recipe. They are extremely soft. And perfectly chewy. Everything I look for in a cookie. But, I am still debating if I like the flavor as much as my traditional PB cookie. It's almost like they have more of a "honey" flavor to them as opposed to a "butter" flavor. Texture? Beyond perfect. Taste? Still deciding. {Don't get me wrong, these do taste a-maz-ing!

Go ahead. Make a batch. And see for yourself!

Chewy Peanut Butter Cookies

Ingredients:
3 cups all-purpose flour
1 cup sugar
1½ tsp. baking soda
1 tsp. baking powder
½ tsp. salt
¼ cup vegetable shortening
4 tbsp. unsalted butter, at room temperature
1 cup creamy peanut butter
1 cup honey
2 large eggs
Sugar, for rolling the cookies

Directions:
In a medium mixing bowl, combine the flour, sugar, baking soda, baking powder and salt; whisk together and set aside. In the bowl of a stand mixer fitted with the paddle attachment, cream together the shortening, butter, peanut butter and honey. Mix in the eggs one at a time, beating well after each addition. With the mixer on low speed, add the dry ingredients to the peanut butter mixture and beat just until incorporated.

Preheat the oven to 350˚ F. Roll the dough into 1½-inch balls, and roll each dough ball in sugar. Place the dough balls on an ungreased baking sheet, a couple inches apart. Bake for 10-12 minutes, or until slightly puffed and golden. Remove from the oven and let cool on the baking sheet for 5-10 minutes before transferring to a wire cooling rack to cool completely. Repeat with the remaining dough. Store in an airtight container.

Recipe found here, one of my favorite go-to recipe sites! Everything she makes tastes awesome!

Want a super cute Halloween cookie jar? I know, you are completely jealous, right? My fabulous Mother-in-law knows how much I love cookie jars, and baking cookies, that she picked it up at Cracker Barrel.

Day 12 of 31: Indian Summer

Once it finally cooled down enough for the kids to go outside and play this evening, they had a blast running around the front yard chasing each other. Lucky for me, there was plenty of time for them to stop for a photo op. I'm glad I haven't packed away their summer clothes yet!

:: Is this a cool pose, Mom? ::

:: Take a picture of me like this, Mom ::

:: Where do you want me to look, Mom? ::

Can you tell that in the following picture, Preston and Paisley are both playing their guitars?

:: We're rock stars! ::

It wasn't too long after this that we had to run inside before the mosquitoes carried us away. Aren't they supposed to start hibernating? Geez!

Day 11 of 31: Pillow Fight

Day 10 of 31: Baby Shower

Yesterday, my bestie Robin and I hosted a baby shower for our friend Debi. Can I just tell you how much fun it is to throw parties? Stressful, yes. Time consuming, yes. Does anything else compare? Probably not! I'm being serious. I was telling Ben that right now, hosting parties is my "outlet", the only way I feel like I can be creative. Unfortunately, scrapbooking has taken a back burner {it's kinda challenging finding time with three young kids, me being pregnant, and completely exhausted at the end of the day to even think about dragging my scrapbooking supplies out!} I guess what's what blogging is for? :)

Back to the baby shower. The theme was She's About to Pop!! Because, literally, Debi is about to pop. {We are hoping she keeps that baby in for at least 10 more days until her husband gets home from deployment!} I wanted to go with more non-traditional colors. You know, not use green and blue or yellow. For some reason, I am loving the color combination of light blue and red. And, as the shower started coming together, I am so happy that we chose those colors. It was too much fun!

:: The complete set up ::


:: White cupcakes & brownie bites w/ vanilla frosting ::


:: Cups with striped straws & raspberries ::






:: Yummy POPcorn ::


:: lolliPOP tree ::


:: the party favors--ring POPs and POP rocks ::


:: Robin, Debi, and Me ::


:: Say Cheese ::


:: Me, Chelsea, Beth, Niesha ::



:: Cindy and her absolutely adorable baby girl ::



:: Me, Paisley, Gail, Debra, Niesha, Debi, Heather ::

Thank you, Robin, for putting up with my crazy/obsessiveness! You can admit it, I can be a bit of both at times! And for allowing me to be a little bit "out of control." It was SO much fun. And thanks, Debi, for letting us use you as an excuse to have a party! :)