Memories

Here's a little game...Leave a comment on my blog of a memory that you and I have had together. It doesn't matter if you have known me for a long time or a short time, anything you remember. Next, re-post these instructions on your blog and see what people say about you. If you leave a comment on my blog I will assume you are playing and I will comment on yours. It should be fun! Oh, and even if you don't have a blog please feel free to leave a comment.

Happy Birthday Chad!

Today my honey is 32! I want to wish him a very special and happy birthday. In celebration of this day, I have decided to list 32 of the reasons that I love Chad. Here they go:

1. He is my best friend
2. He is a wonderful father
3. He is a great provider for our family
4. He lets me drive the nicer car
5. He is funny
6. He is smart with computers
7. He helps me a lot with computers
8. He makes me smile
9. He takes good care of our yard
10. He gives the kids elevator rides to bed every night
11. He is clean
12. He does great puppet shows
13. He dresses nice
14. He is the spiritual strength in our home
15. He is a hard worker
16. He likes to have fun
17. He brings me home wonderful Stampin' Up products
18. He is a good lover
19. He has great eyes
20. He takes me on dates
21. He is supportive of Bunko and Girl's Nights
22. He loves his kids
23. He loves Murphy and I think it's cute
24. He has become pretty handy
25. He is reliable
26. He makes nice cards
27. He looks hot on his skateboard
28. He has many talents
29. He smells good
30. He has a sweet smile
31. He likes my cooking
32. And even though he is really old now, he is still good looking!

Happy Birthday Chad, I love you!

Peanut Butter Whopper Sandwich Cookies

My friend Kim got me hooked on pickypalate.blogspot.com where I have found many new recipes that I can't wait to try. Last night I gave these cookies a shot and they were awesome. We love them and will definately be making them again. Not only do they taste amazing, but they look great as well.

1 stick softened butter*

½ cup Peanut Butter

½ cup sugar

½ cup brown sugar

1 large egg

½ teaspoon vanilla

¼ cup flour

¾ teaspoon baking soda

½ teaspoon baking powder

¼ teaspoon salt

3.5 oz container Peanut Butter Whoppers, coarsely crushed
sugar for rolling
1 container whipped vanilla frosting (or a homemade frosting of choice)

1 big handful of mini marshmallows, cut in half the long way

1. Preheat oven to 375 degrees. In a stand or electric mixer, cream the butter, peanut butter, and sugars until creamy. Add egg and vanilla until well combined.

2. Place flour, baking soda, baking powder, and salt into a large bowl, stir to combine. Slowly add dry ingredients to wet ingredients on low speed, then add whoppers until just combined.

3. Scoop dough with a cookie scoop, roll into sugar then place onto a parchment or silpat lined baking sheet. Bake for 8-10 minutes, until cooked but still soft.

4. Stir the frosting and cut marshmallows in a medium bowl, spread between 2 cookies and Enjoy!

*I always substitute butter flavored shortening for the butter in my cookies. Just remember to add 6 tsp. water for every 1 cup of shortening substituted.

Pioneer Day

Happy 24th of July! We had such a fun day and wanted to share our pictures with everyone.

Chad had to work, that was a bummer. But the boys and I made the most of our day. It sarted early with yard work. It was not my intention to work so long in the hot sun, but I did, with a few little breaks in between.

After mowing the lawn we hooked up the boy's "rocket ship sprinkler" and the fun began. Murphy (our Dachsund) had as much fun as Jack and Nixin did with the sprinkler. Whenever the boys were ready to launch the rocket, Murphy would attack it and knock it down, barking and wagging her tail the entire time. It made Jack especially mad, but I was laughing the whole time. It helped me a great deal through the pulling of the Morning Glory. I hate that stuff! When the fun of the sprinkler wore off, we had a Totino's Cheese Pizza picnic in the back yard. I had a nice time with my kids.

Later that evening Jack pumped up an enormous soccer ball and the boys played with it outside. We went for a stroll around the block- Chad on his skateboard, the boys on their bikes, and I walked.

We came home and before we knew it, it was firework time! You would think that a 5 year old watching his friends and brother having so much fun with sparklers would think that they were fun too. Instead Jack hid behind the mailbox and wimpered. Eventually he did do 2 sparklers and he is pretty proud of himself. Chad finished our night off with the "Pyro 1" pack of fireworks and the kids thought that was pretty cool. We had a really fun day and can't wait for next years festivities!

Chicken Salad

I have another favorite recipe to share with all of my recipe collecting buddies! I have made this several times already this summer and I'm sure that I will make it several more. It is so yummy! We eat it on bread as sandwiches. I hope you like it!


2 1/2 cups diced and chilled, cooked chicken meat
1 cup chopped celery
1 cup sliced, seedless grapes
1/2 cup sliced almonds
2 tablespoons chopped fresh parsley
1 teaspoon salt
1 cup mayonnaise
1/4 cup heavy whipping cream

In a medium bowl, whip cream to soft peaks.
Combine meat, celery, grapes, almonds, parsley, salt, and mayonnaise with whipped cream. Chill.

Rockport

We were so fortunate to spend this past Saturday at Rockport with our good friends the Hodlmairs and the Platts. We met the Hodlmairs just after we moved into our town house, about 6 years ago. We have since become good friends, and we sure love them! The Platts are Camie's parents and our boys newly adopted Grandma and Grandpa. Chad and I took our Jet Ski with us, hopeful that it would actually run this trip up to the lake. After about 5 minutes of great fun, that darn check engine light came on and the stupid thing died. Luckily it would start right back up again and let us slowly go a little ways before it would die again and eventually we made it back to the dock and were able to load it back onto the trailer. We were so bummed!

Although we did have bad luck with that, we still had a blast that day! The Platt's have a boat and took good care of us. Jack and Nixin were so brave and loved their rides on the tube! Jack was so comfortable that he was moving all around in that thing, sticking his hands down in the water and smiling the whole time. I was so brave too! Gay and Camie got me into the tube with them. Gay held my hand the whole time and reassured me that I would be okay. And I was, until Camie got this great idea to turn onto her belly...the tube went under the water a little, and I shouted a swear, a good "Oh Sh..!" That was funny because we had just finished talking about how crap was a swear word growing up in Camie's house. The good news is that we did not tip over and that it wasn't that bad. I might have actually enjoyed myself! Chad was thrilled that he was able to get up and wake board so well. He did a good job and had a lot of fun. So much fun that Chad is seriously talking about selling our lemon of a Jet Ski and investing in a boat. We had such a fun trip and feel lucky to have such great friends. Thanks for a day at Rockport!

Peanut Butter Oatmeal Chocolate Chip Cookies

I love to spend my time cooking. Unfortunately I don't do it as much lately as I would like to. But last night my boys and I whipped up a batch of some pretty awesome cookies and I had to add the recipe to my blog. The cookies are a yummy combination of oatmeal, peanut butter, and chocolate chips.

1 c. butter flavored shortening
6 tsp. water
1 c. white sugar
2/3 c. brown sugar
1 c. peanut butter
1 tsp. vanilla
2 eggs
2 c. flour
2 tsp. baking soda
1/2 tsp. salt
1 c. rolled oats, lightly ground in food processor
2 c. chocolate chips*

Preheat oven to 325 degrees. In a medium bowl, cream the shortening, water, white sugar, and brown sugar. Stir in the peanut butter, vanilla and eggs until well blended. Combine the flour, baking soda and salt; stir into the batter just until moistened. Mix in the oats and chocolate chips until evenly distributed. Drop by 1/4 cupfuls onto a Silpat lined (or lightly greased) cookie sheet. Bake for 15-17 minutes until the edges start to brown.
*Instead of using only chocolate chips, I chopped 2 large candy bars (Swedish chocolate from Ikea) into large chunks and also added 1 c. of semi-sweet chocolate chips.

Three Feet

After attending his Primary Class today, this is the conversation that I had with my 5 year old son, Jack:

Jack: Hey mom, guess what my teacher told us about today.
Erica: What?
Jack: He told us that there was a boy who wanted to go on a mission, but before he did he had to grow 3 feet!
Erica: Wow.
Jack: Isn't that crazy Mom? He is going to have 3 feet!

He really thought that the boy was going to grow a third foot! Ha ha! I laughed hard, made him go tell Chad what he had learned, then Chad laughed too. What a joy it is to be a mother!

Angel Moroni

The boys and I saw something really neat today. A friend came over to get a haircut and he said that on his way over he had seen the Angel Moroni on a crane being lifted up onto the top of the new Oquirrh Mountain Utah Temple. I quickly cut his hair, grabbed the boys and we drove up the hill to the temple site. Sure enough, there was the Angel Moroni, now resting on the steeple of the temple. Workers were still working to attach the beautiful statue. Jack repeatedly told me "that when Jesus comes back to earth the Angel Moroni is going to blow his horn so that we know he is here." He also reminded me that both Grandma Coral and Grandpa Henry will be able to come alive again. The things he has been catching onto are wonderful. We have enjoyed driving by the new temple so often and seeing its progress. It sure was a great thing to see and I feel so lucky to be so close to all of these temples.

Sleepy Time

Seriously, is there anything sweeter than this?

Swimming Lessons

Jack just completed his first session of swimming lessons. His wonderful preschool teacher, Mrs. Amee and her husband Kevan have a pool in their back yard and they teach swimming lessons in the summer time. Jack made huge improvements in the pool! He dares to stick his head under the water, he can float on his back, and he even went off of the diving board a few times! He had a great time and I loved watching him do it.