Fat Tuesday and Kings Cake

"We are all kings or pawns of men."

Name that movie, Robin!

Valentine's Day Packages

Thanks Grandma!!! You spiced up an otherwise uneventful day. We did take three balloons to McKay's work during the day, and mooched off his company sponsored holiday lunch. Which is worse? That that was the only thing we did for Valentine's Day, or that two of McKay's three balloons came back home with us to stave off a pre-nap meltdown?

Knock Off Pottery Barn Shelves

I saw this really cute idea on this blog: Anna White's Ten Dollar Ledges

I thought, I can do that, easy peasy.

And you know what? It actually was.

I love how it looks! And I REALLY love how easily Jamie can get to all her books on the bottom ledge. She is way more into books than Tyler ever was. Several times a day, she'll wander in here, grab a few books, and bring them out for me to read them to her. She loves the mommy and Jamie time, I love the not-screaming time :)

A story of rice krispie treats and a Tres Leches cake

A few Sundays ago, it was my turn to teach the 8-11 CTR class (I take turns with another girl since its a crazy, enormous class). The lesson was on Nephi's vision of the tree of life and the iron rod. I don't know about you, but the most exciting part of church when I was little (and, lets be honest, to this day) is when someone brings treats. So when I'm the teacher, I make it a point to bring treats.

So what kind of treat fits in with the tree of life?

A tree of rice krispie treats, that's what.

This was not mine. Mine was lopsided and dried out. Also it had M&Ms in it (you know, fruit that is desirable above all else).

So I brought all my lesson stuff to church on Sunday, and I put the Rice Krispie Treat Tree in the church kitchen, and I went into Sacrament meeting. I came back out at the end to get my stuff...and the tree was gone. Just snatched off the plate. The entire thing. Gone.

Not gonna lie, I was pretty mad. The funny thing was, once I told my class what had happened, it actually bonded us together against the treat thief, and we had an awesome first lesson.

The rest of church passed, and I kind of got over it (the entire ward's anger on my behalf helped). I didn't think too much about it until a few days later when I heard a knock on my door. I opened it to find four older boys from the ward accompanied by the scout master holding a cake in a box from Eatzi's and a cookie that said "I'm sorry"

It was well received.

The boys looked super nervous, so I hugged them all and told them this cake was way better than dried out rice krispie treats.

Jamie agreed.

A new addiction, albeit a wholesome one

Confession: I always thought people who regularly made their own bread were a little weird. Really? You can't afford an $.88 loaf of bread?

Until one day last week when we ran out of bread in the morning, and (not feeling a trip to the store) I thought to myself, I have lots of assorted flours in the pantry, why not just for fun?

Holy. Freaking. Cow.

I cannot overstate how good this bread is. It is the holy grail of whole wheat bread recipes. McKay loves it for his sandwiches. Tyler and Jamie love it for their toast in the morning. And I love it for its soft, chewy, delicious with honey and butter self.

You guys, I'm not kidding when I say I do not want to buy bread ever again. I have joined with the weirdos and I don't care.

Here's the recipe:

Honey Whole Wheat Bread

Now the only thing left to do is to try it out with my friend Melissa's heavenly looking Vanilla Bean Honey Butter.

It's probably a good thing I've started running again.

Cars, cars, cars. Ugh.

So while the red car was getting a facelift at Progressive's car shop, McKay's car decided to die on the freeway while I was driving it back from a student teaching. Let me tell you, losing all driving power and power steering while going 70 miles an hour is terrifying. So we had a weird few days where we had two rental cars at once.

I missed my car.

McKay did not miss his car. Or its lack of an iPod port. It was a sad day when the warranty stopped covering his rental :)

But sometimes our neighbors do this:

When we park on the street, that is.

Sigh. Big sigh. Angry grumble. Roar.

By the way, thank you McKay for insisting on Hit and Run Collision Coverage.

Sometimes my baby does this:

after a long morning out.

As long as we're delving into ancient history

McKay and I took a three day trip into Dallas last August (I know, we live in Dallas. But you can't walk leisurely around the arts district at midnight with a then three year old and one year old.) Our awesome friends took our babies for a few days, and we had an AWESOME time.

All mine

Sushi!

Ohhhh, sore feet after walking miles around downtown after dinner in four inch heels. These shoes were not made for walking.

Recovered. Why is this underlined?

This was so fun to see our city like normal, non-parent people, and also just to get away from responsibility for a few days. Thanks Dallas! Seriously, what's with the underlining?

Halloween!

Hiccup and Tinkerbell ready to hit the town!

My awesome grocery bags - turned lanterns all lit up.

Our art: T for Tyler and a spider on a web.

Ward Halloween Party=sweet!

Happy (belated) Halloween!

A Halloween Birthday

We're baaa-aaaaack...for now, at least :)

So, four months late is better than never, right? Tyler turned FOUR (I still can't believe it) this last October, and we had a spectacular Halloween birthday party in our backyard with a bunch of his costumed friends.

We did give them fair warning...

It was so much fun, and I am being super lame just posting pictures without telling all about it because, let's be honest, I stayed up til 3am the night before finishing the treats and decorations, so I can't really remember all of it. Either way, I'm pretty proud of myself for pulling together some sort of blog post, and judging from the pictures (thanks, Eve!!) we look like we had a good time.

We love you, Bubba!