Oh, and I highly recommend that you try her Triple Layer Carrot Cake with Cream Cheese Frosting
and her Pumpkin Chocolate Cheesecake Bites. YUM!!!!
Hannah 4 months
9 years ago
Tuesday, March 29, 2011
Food that is to DIE for!
One of my visiting teachers is an AMAZING cook and just set up this website http://www.budgetgourmetmom.com/. She is very talented when it comes to cooking and most of her recipes are things that she has just come up with herself. If you are looking for some new recipes, check it out!
Thursday, March 24, 2011
Soccer and Dance
As I had mentioned in a previous post, our family has definitely moved onto a new phase in our lives with the kids growing up and being involved in activities of their own.
This last fall, Bryce was old enough to play city league soccer. He had never played soccer before but he soon got the hang of it and loved it! As the season progressed, he got better and better, but still had a hard time getting agressive enough to get right in the bunch to try to get the ball. He even made 6 goals (if I remember right) for his team during the season. It was a lot of fun to watch and cheer him on.
Bryce's penalty kick that scored a point for their team.
Bryce and one of his friends.
Since Bryce was "taking soccer lessons" as the kids called it, Emily wanted to take some "lessons" of some sort. Fortunately the community school offered a dance class for kids her age. She was SO excited to take dance lessons. And for how clumsy she normally is (which she takes after her mommy :) ), I was actually surprised at how coordinated she was in dance and she caught onto everything pretty quick.
They did a dance to "Stupid Cupid" by Mandy Moore and it was SO cute! In the first dance class, there was a part of the dance that they learned where the girls were supposed to say "Stupid Cupid" along with the music...well, stupid is considered a "bad word" at our house and so Emily, while standing in the dance line, leaned out and looked at me with a very distraught look on her face. It was so cute and I was trying not to laugh. She didn't know what to do because her teacher was telling her to say it, but we had told her that's a bad word. On the way home from dance we tried explaining to her that it was okay to say it when she was doing her dance. She kept insisting and telling us, "But that's a bad word!" We finally let her decide what she was going to do and after a couple of weeks, she realized that it really was okay at dance and felt okay about saying it there but not at home. :)
She loved dance so much that she was so disappointed when the class was done. Every week for a few weeks she would ask if she had dance lessons and would just about break down and cry when we told her that dance class was over. Since she enjoyed it so much, we signed her up again and she has loved every minute of it. I think we might be looking around for a permanent dance class that goes year round. :)
Tuesday, March 22, 2011
Girls Weekend in Vegas
Last August I had the opportunity to go to Vegas with some ladies from the ward. I felt guilty leaving my family to do something "fun", but with the assurance from my hubby that it was fine, I was glad I went.
We were there for a couple of days and obviously didn't get a chance to see everything. Two of the ladies had never been there before and the other one hadn't been to Vegas in a LONG time, so since I had been there a few times (including two months previous to this trip), I got to be the tour guide. The ladies were in total awe and they kept commenting on how different Vegas was than they had originally thought. (Not sure if that was a good thing or not. :) )
When we first got there, it was in the evening, so we went to our hotel and dropped our stuff off and then headed to the strip. We got dinner at P.F. Changs (YUMMY!!!) and then headed out to walk around for a while. We ended up going to the Coke and the M & M stores and then some of the little shops along the way.
Now for the most adventurous part of the trip...We got back to the hotel pretty late and were beat from the drive and all of the walking around. One of the ladies decided to go to bed while the rest of us stayed up to visit a little longer. A couple minutes later, we hear her screaming in the bedroom and saying, "Oh my gosh! Oh my gosh!" in between screams. We didn't move and didn't know if we should go in the bedroom or not. We hesitated because she had told us that she is an extreme talker and walker in her sleep and was worried about coming on the trip because of that. (It's so bad that some nights her husband sleeps out on the couch to avoid it.) So we weren't sure if she was just doing this in her sleep or if she was really awake. She then came running out saying that there was a cockroach on the pillow! So we all go running in there trying to find it and found it had gone behind the dresser. Yeah, that was fun. So one of the ladies called down to the front desk and was able to get us transferred to a different room that was NOT on the bottom level (they told us that the bottom level has problems with cockroaches getting in the rooms all the time because they can obviously get in with doors being left open, etc.). We figured that since the cockroach was under the covers that it had come in with the maids and was in the bedding when they made the bed. So not only were we all SO tired, but we had to pack up all of our stuff and carry it up to the third floor to a new room...in a completely different building. When we got to the new room we turned on all the lights, ripped the bedding apart, and searched the room for cockroaches. As far as we know, it was all clear.
Well, that wasn't the end of the fun. When we had all settled down and gotten into bed, this same lady had fallen asleep pretty quick and all of a sudden sat up and started to swat at the bed and saying, "Stop it! Get away!" It kind of scared us all because we thought that maybe she found another cockroach. The lady that shared a bed with her asked her a couple of times, "What's wrong? Are you okay?" and she then responded saying, "Oh, sorry, sorry", and laid back down and was fast asleep. Yep, she had talked in her sleep! We all started to laugh! After what we had already gone through that night (and with it being so late at night) it was hilarious.
Now, enough about our exciting first night...the next day we went back down to the strip and toured around. We went through some of the casino's and went to the Madam Tasaude Wax Museum. The wax museum was pretty neat...pricey...but worth going to at least once.
Then later that night we had tickets to see Phantom of the Opera. Okay, if you ever get a chance to go see it...do it! It was AWESOME!!! I've seen the Blue Man Group and Le Reve in Vegas and both of those were awesome and very impressive, so I knew we wouldn't be disappointed with Phantom. The other ladies had never seen a show in Vegas and were totally amazed and in awe with the play. They were practically speechless (in a good way) when we left the theater.
After the play, we got dinner and then did the last of our touring. We went by Treasure Island and the Mirage and then we walked FOREVER to get to the Bellagio. Unfortunately by the time we got clear down to the Bellagio to watch the water show, the last song of the night was just finishing up. :( So, we decided to rest there for a few minutes before making our long walk back to the Venetian to get to the car.
It was a really fun trip (despite the cockroach experience) and was so fun to get to know these ladies better.
Mesquite...again
We LOVE going to Mesquite!
When we go down, our time is filled with a lot of playing, swimming, and golfing.
(Emily's first golf lesson. ;) )
And during the summer, a lot of cool treats. :)
Thanks to grandma and grandpa, it has been fun to have a place to go that is far enough away that can be considered a "vacation", but close enough that we can go whenever we can.
Thursday, March 17, 2011
Where Have the Bing's Been?
Well, not quite sure. :) It seems lately that we have been running from one thing to the next and I think we as a family have moved onto a new phase in our lives filled with kids going to school, dance lessons, sports, along with the everyday family duties. Although it seems that we never stop, we enjoy our time spent together through all this craziness.
We have thoroughly enjoyed the fire pit. It was a sad day when we told the kids that we could make "real smores" now and they both had no clue what a smore was. :) They soon learned and absolutely LOVE them. One day while at the grocery store I came across some ginormous marshmallows and just had to get them for the kids to make their first smores with. When I got home and showed the kids, their eyes got huge and they were both speechless...then they got REALLY excited to make smores. We invited grandma and grandpa B. to come over and try out the new fire pit with us. It has become a favorite family activity on a summer night for us.
Next, Bryce decided he wanted to take swimming lessons. With Blair working at the pool during the summer he was able to make "a request" that Bryce got an excellent swim teacher (not that the others aren't good, but she was great with Bryce). Bryce loved it for the most part. But he just had one problem...he didn't like getting his face wet. :) He said that his favorite part of swimming lessons was the last day when they got to go down the slide. :)
Our city celebration is during the summer and this last year we went to the car show, the parade, and Blair and I got to go to the rodeo.
After looking at the cars, we took the kids to the carnival. It was Family Night so every ride was only one ticket. We gave each kid 10 tickets and they were able to ride 3 times as many rides as they would have on a normal night. It was great! And the kids LOVED it!
We could tell when Emily refused to get off one of the rides and it took both grandma and daddy to get her to get off. :)
Now since we had the boat, we needed to get a vehicle to pull it with. (Yeah, we like to do things backwards. ;) ) We had already been looking around for a bigger SUV than the Jeep for at least a year prior to this purchase, but just didn't quite take the plunge to get one thinking that we would wait until the Jeep crapped out on us (which it didn't...it kept going and going and going :) )...so with the purchase of the boat this kind of hurried up the "need" a little. Blair was able to get a great deal (which I will admit, I am now realizing) on a Tahoe with low miles.
Now, to go back in time to figure out where the last year went.
A couple of years ago we FINALLY got our patio and extra driveway done, so this last summer we were busy (or rather Blair was busy) with building a shed and also getting our fire pit built. It is SO nice to have the shed to have an extra place to store things instead of barely being able to get out of our cars because of all the stuff in the garage. Now just to get it organized. :)
We have thoroughly enjoyed the fire pit. It was a sad day when we told the kids that we could make "real smores" now and they both had no clue what a smore was. :) They soon learned and absolutely LOVE them. One day while at the grocery store I came across some ginormous marshmallows and just had to get them for the kids to make their first smores with. When I got home and showed the kids, their eyes got huge and they were both speechless...then they got REALLY excited to make smores. We invited grandma and grandpa B. to come over and try out the new fire pit with us. It has become a favorite family activity on a summer night for us.
Next, Bryce decided he wanted to take swimming lessons. With Blair working at the pool during the summer he was able to make "a request" that Bryce got an excellent swim teacher (not that the others aren't good, but she was great with Bryce). Bryce loved it for the most part. But he just had one problem...he didn't like getting his face wet. :) He said that his favorite part of swimming lessons was the last day when they got to go down the slide. :)
Our city celebration is during the summer and this last year we went to the car show, the parade, and Blair and I got to go to the rodeo.
We saw a lot of neat cars at the car show including the Delorian like in Back to the Future and even Mater. But Blair was really excited when he saw his "dream car". A black 2010 Chevy Camero...exactly what he wants.
After looking at the cars, we took the kids to the carnival. It was Family Night so every ride was only one ticket. We gave each kid 10 tickets and they were able to ride 3 times as many rides as they would have on a normal night. It was great! And the kids LOVED it!
We could tell when Emily refused to get off one of the rides and it took both grandma and daddy to get her to get off. :)
Blair and I were given the opportunity to go to the rodeo, thanks to some relatives who ended up having two extra tickets and offered them to us. It had been quite a few years since Blair had been to one and I had never been to one before. (Yes, being raised here where there are rodeos all through the summer somewhere close by, I never went to one.) It was quite the experience and can definitely keep you "on the edge of your seat". Although it was cool to watch the bull riders and the other competitions, my most favorite was watching the Mutton Bustin'. Those are some pretty tough kids and although I would never let my kids do it, I quite enjoyed watching these little kids with their own techniques and plans on how they were going to hold on for the ride of their lives. (My favorite was the kid that rode backwards and ended up winning.)
To end the few days of celebration, we went to the parade and then later had family over for smores and fireworks. The kids always enjoy the parade and this time were able to get a little bit of candy.
It was fun to have our families over to make smores and do fireworks later that night.
This is the husband of one of our cousins. He is from Poland and he had never heard of smores and was quite curious and confused when we mentioned we would be making smores. He kept calling them "snorts". It was hilarious! When he got here and saw what they were and tried one, he loved them!
This is kind of "old news", but remember earlier in this post I had mentioned that we had gotten our extra driveway done a couple years ago? Well, with it being empty for a year, we got something to use up the empty space on the driveway...we became the proud owners of a boat. :)
For years Blair has been looking on KSL at boats hoping to find a great deal on one. Well, this time he did. It's an older boat, but is in really good shape for being as old as it is.
When we brought it home Emily immediately started calling it her boat (she said it's because it is red like her bedroom and she likes the color red). So, that's just kind of stuck and everyone calls it Emily's Red Boat. :)
As you can see, it's been a lot of fun to have and to be able to just go out on the lake/fishing whenever we want.
Now since we had the boat, we needed to get a vehicle to pull it with. (Yeah, we like to do things backwards. ;) ) We had already been looking around for a bigger SUV than the Jeep for at least a year prior to this purchase, but just didn't quite take the plunge to get one thinking that we would wait until the Jeep crapped out on us (which it didn't...it kept going and going and going :) )...so with the purchase of the boat this kind of hurried up the "need" a little. Blair was able to get a great deal (which I will admit, I am now realizing) on a Tahoe with low miles.
It has been SO nice to have, not only for the boat, but also to be able to fit and haul things in the back without having to worry about borrowing someone else's vehicle to do so. It has also been nice to be able to take a couple more people with us instead of having had to caravan places. Then after finding out that we were going to have a new addition to our family and thus having to add another car seat, it was an added bonus to have the extra room we would need and made the purchase even more worth it.
Well, now after this long post and probably being bored out of your mind, I will stop rambling for today and continue to catch up another day (hopefully sooner than later! ;) ).
Friday, February 4, 2011
Couldn't You Just See Bryce Doing This?
This is a GREAT Super Bowl Commercial! And couldn't you just see Bryce walking around our house doing this? Absolutely love it! Oh, and you might want to turn off our playlist music so you can hear the commercial. :)
Saturday, November 6, 2010
First Day of School
I'm a little late in posting this, but better late than never right? 
Emily started preschool this year at the same one that Bryce had gone to the previous two years. The first day was a Parent and Me class where I was able to go with her and stay for the whole class time. She was at first shy and wanted me by her side the whole time. Now, she asks me everyday (including Saturday and Sunday) if she is going to preschool "today". She absolutely LOVES going to school and as her teacher told me, Emily loves to learn. Now, for a moment of mommy bragging :)...her teacher said that Emily is one of the smartest kids in the class! (And just to let you know, there are quite a few kids in her class that are a year or two older than her.) We were so excited to hear that! And we are excited that she actually tells us what she did in school, unlike Bryce. :)
Bryce started Kindergarten this year. He was SO excited to go to the "Big School". He loves school...well, until it's time to do homework. :) He has a wonderful teacher that he just loves and says that he is doing awesome! Now, for another mommy bragging moment...I went to Bryce's SEP conference the other day and was able to meet one on one with his teacher. She not only said that he is an awesome student (both in his work and in his attitude) and that she is very impressed by how much he knows already, but also that he is the top reader in the class! They started the Take Home reading books and she started Bryce out at Level C (and was the only one that did so), after which he advanced to Level D after two books. Once again, we were so excited to hear this! He knew all of his letters and the sound that they make, he knew all of his numbers up to 20 (except for 12...don't quite know why), and got the highest marks on his citizenship grades, except for one, which was "Uses time wisely", which got a Satisfactory. His teacher said not to worry, it's not because he wastes his time, he just likes to make sure his work is nice and neat and so it takes him a lot longer to finish things. Definitely the perfectionism in him. :) She said that they would work on that and get him to try to move along a little faster. :)
We are so grateful for them both and for their love of learning!
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