Chocolate, It's What's For Dessert!

The phone rang soon after we arrived home from church. It was the kind of call you love to get, an invitation for dessert. It wasn't just any dessert invitation, it was a chocolate fountain invitation! Camille is on the Stake Activities Committee and had borrowed the fountain for our Stake Sweetheart Ball. She's such a fun mom that she wanted to give her kids a chance to experience the delight of flowing chocolate before returning it. Our girls were in heaven and apparently didn't want to take the time to bother with napkins!

First the big sisters took their turn at the fountain. They dribbled and drooled and loved every minute of it.

After a while, Alyssa gave up the dipping stick and went for using her fingers. When that didn't produce a sufficient amount of chocolate she resorted to filling a cup and drinking it! Atta girl!

Next the little sisters took their spot! Just look at that mess left by the older girls!

Natalie was surprisingly more refined than her older sister!

I can't believe that Jon captured a picture of me without a stick in my hand or a bite of chocolate halfway to my mouth! I definitely had my fill. I think I was just admiring the luscious cascade and trying to restrain myself from going back for more!

Thanks McInelly's, we'll come over for dessert anytime!

Oh Baby, Oh Boy!

After weeks of planning, the day of my friend Stephanie's shower finally arrived and it went off without a hitch.

It all started with this invitation. After I designed them I was so in love with the colors that I decided to use them in the decorations. I had so much fun thinking of ideas and planning for this shower!

Isn't this banner the cutest thing? It said, "Oh Baby, Oh Boy!"

The spread. I did two varieties of homemade rolls with meat and cheese and each had a toothpick that I had handmade with the "right" color blue tissue paper topper! I also made fruit dip to go with the fruit Holly brought, pasta salad and spinach dip. Jackie made my enchilada dip for me and also brought the veggie tray. Camille made a broccoli salad, which was great! I don't sew a stitch so Mom made a beautiful table runner for me. Many of the guests admired it but unfortunately you can't really see it in the picture. Jon picked me up a gorgeous flower arrangement from my favorite flower shop and I made the take-out boxes with goodies for the prizes! (you can't really see those in the picture either but they were really cute!)

I used an old Crystal Light container to create my matching pencil holder. Vases from old flower arrangements that Jon had gotten me made for the perfect candy dishes (with the perfect color candies) and a nice centerpiece for my coffee table. For the game we played "How well do we know Stephanie as a mother?" I had written twenty questions like "What brand of diapers do you use? and "What will be the best thing about not being pregnant anymore?" I matched 13 of the 20 which was by far the most but, of course, gave the prize to the 2nd place winner! I know her well, it must be all those hours spent running together every morning!

I made a trail mix for the favors complete with a cute tag. The trail mix included the "right" color M&M's.

Here is the guest of honor showing off a beautiful quilt made by Camille.

Jackie, Holly and Camille enjoying dessert!

Again using vases from former flower arrangements from Jon, I made this name suggestion jar. They are having a hard time choosing a name so we sent her home with some good options!

And finally, dessert! Stephanie loves peanut butter so I made these individual peanut butter pies complete with a fudge layer, cool whip and crushed M&M's in that now-probably-overused color of blue! Yummy!

What fun! There are few events in life that are so exciting as a new baby, right?

Happiness is...

Here are some things that have brought happiness to me this week:

10. Met an old friend/co-worker for lunch.

9. Taught a first discussion to an investigator in Spanish. It was fun speaking Espanol again.

8. Power washed my truck. It really needed it.

7. Got our tax refund back. :)

6. Went dancing with my sweetheart at our Stake Sweetheart Ball. There were only a few people actually dancing but it ended up being rather fun.

5. Caleb and Alyssa playing nicely together.




4. Confirmed a man I home teach a member of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints at his baptism.

3. Took all the kids out to Wendy's for dinner. Just Dad and kids.

2. Assisted in ordaining another man I have been working with for nearly 3 years to the Aaronic Priesthood.

1. Happy kids!

10 Things I Love about Tara

These may be a day late as yesterday was Valentines Day, but I am usually late in everything I do.
There are way more than 10 but here are just a few:

1. She is my best friend.
2. Tara would prefer to please someone else than be pleased.
3. She makes me cute "I love you" cards.
4. She is the best "MOM" in the world.
5. She is beautiful. I married the most beautiful woman in the world. Who knew I'd be that lucky?
6. She let me get my LCD TV. Thank you!
7. She makes me wonderful food. Even though I am a bit picky, she caters to me. I know I am lucky and spoiled.
8. She is the hardest worker I know. When she commits to something, she pours her entire self into it.
9. She likes- I mean loves- to watch football. Sometimes more than I do. Again, I am the luckiest man in the world.
10. She is the best person to hang out with. I wouldn't rather be any other place than with her.
    
    Happy "Day after" Valentines Day!

2nd Annual Valentine Fondue Lunch

Great food and good times to celebrate our friendship!

We started with cheese fondue...SO yummy!

Then we dipped in luscious chocolate! Just look at that fountain flowing with creamy milk chocolate!!

We could hardly contain ourselves!

My valentines--didn't they turn out cute? I made chocolate "So Good Cookies" and they turned out yummy!

101 Dalmations - Roger and a poodle

Caleb and Alyssa have spent the last few weeks practicing for their roles in the Lakeland Hills Elementary school play. This is the new school in our neighborhood so this is the first production that the school has put on. Caleb tried out for the part of Roger (the human owner of the dalmatians) and got the part! We were very proud and nervous at the same time. He has a history of being afraid in front of groups of strangers so we didn't really know how he'd react to an auditorium full of strangers coming to watch him perform. Alyssa, only a kindergartner was a poodle dog and then one of the 101 dalmatians at the end of the show.

Both he and Alyssa were great! Here are some pictures from the play.

Roger confronting Cruella De Vil.

The poodles.
" We'll have a dalmatian plantation... it'll be a sensation!"

The runt of the litter is our dalmatian!

Roger telling Cruella, "The game is over, Cruella!"


Roger leading the cast in "Cruella DeVil"

Six Unusual Things About Me (Maureen)

1. I have traveled to 5 of the 7 continents.

2. For the first four years after graduating from college, I purchased only one piece of furniture to furnish my home... a futon.

3. I do not own a personal computer, cable TV or a land line telephone.

4. I have sung at the Hatch shell with the Boston Pops for a 4th of July celebration.

5. The only time (twice) I have ridden in an ambulance has been in foreign countries. (Canada and England)

6. I am the only one of my siblings that does not have brown eyes (I have green eyes).

Six Unusual Things About Me (Jon)

1. I prefer the farmer method of blowing your nose... kleenex are for sissies.

2. I really like everything about outer space. UFO is the only way to travel.

3. I dislike peanut butter - but I really like peanut butter cups. Unusual isn't it?

4. I met my wife in a foreign country.

5. I nearly painted our brand new exposed aggregate patio white! I thought I was putting on a clear sealant... but it was a white sealant. Oooooppppss!!! Tara stopped me after I painted one portion of a section. It just didn't look like it would dry clear. Tara and I spent many hours on our hands and knees with paint stripper and wire brushes scrapping it off.

6. As a youngin... I really liked mustard sandwiches. Just bread and mustard. Yum Yum!

I am tagging Jay, Christopher, and Maureen. Maureen doesn't have a blog, but she is visiting for the weekend so we will post her replies here.

Six Unusual Things About Me

So I'm "It" after being tagged by Lucy and Bridget. This has been so hard to come up with six more things after feeling like I exposed all my quirks and weirdness in my 100 list. But here are my 6 unusual things:

1. The thought of outer space freaks me out. I don't like seeing pictures of space shuttles, astronauts or anything of the sort.

2. I took a "Sewing For Fun" class in high school. While I was working so diligently to produce straight seams, I seemed to lose track of my hand placement and sewed my finger! When I pulled my hand away, the needle broke from the machine and was completely through my finger tip. I tried to remove the needle from the top but the bottom of the needle was still sticking out of the bottom of my finger. X-rays showed a piece of metal that remains in my finger to this day. I haven't touch a sewing machine since. I admit defeat!

3. I know all three verses of the Star-Spangled Banner from memory. Whenever we sing it in church, the bishop watches me because he's amazed that I don't need the hymn book.

4. There is a pattern in the number of letters in our family member's names. Tara has 4, Caleb-5, Alyssa-6, Natalie-7 and Jonathan-8. NO, we did NOT plan that, I realized it after Natalie was born.

5. While in high school I once skipped Spanish class and tried to change the attendance records (saw a friend, the attendance collector in the hall) to show that I was present but I was unaware that a janitor witnessed the whole process and reported my misdeed. I was sentenced to Saturday Work Force.

6. In the last two months I have run in every weather condition possible. Pouring rain, blowing wind, blinding snow, icy temperatures, power outage-(that was like running with your eyes closed) and even bright sunshine! We've had wacky weather this winter.

Jon, Jen and Emily--"You're it!"
I know it's lame to tag Jon since we share a blog but he can't seem to finish his 100's list but I'm pretty sure he can come up with six. That and being new to the blogging world, I don't have too many people to choose from.

Who's the Boss?

We all arrived home around six o'clock last night. The kids had dress rehearsal for the school play, 101 Dalmations. We happily greeted Jon who had just gotten home from work. I knew I needed to get dinner started right away so that we could eat, get cleaned up and fit a quick FHE in before 8:15 when a bunch of my friends were due to meet at our house to go out for a girlfriend's b-day celebration.

I gave Jon two options for dinner, he opted for the beef and broccoli. I quickly threw it together and we sat down to eat. Right after the blessing Alyssa looked to Jon and said, "Why do you get to choose?" "Because I'm the dad," Jon replied. Then he said, "Maybe when you grow up and you're the dad, you'll get to choose." That of course started the discussion about how Caleb would be a dad but Alyssa would be a mom. Caleb asked, "What does a mom do?" Oh, I love that question! I thought, "Here's my chance to list my many jobs and earn some credit and respect from my children." Jon and I went back and forth listing the many jobs a mom does; laundry, grocery shopping, cooking, bathrooms, driving kids to their activities, volunteering in classrooms, PTA meetings...we went on and on.

After a thoughtful pause, Caleb sighed and said, "Wow Sis, you gotta do a lot of jobs if you're going to be a mom!" I laughed, gleefully clapped my hands and asked Caleb to give me five! It always feels good to get some acknowledgement, right?

After another thoughtful pause and with a small amount of dread Caleb asked, "What does a dad do?" "Goes to work," I said. "And does the dishes." (Jon's really good about that!) "That's it?" Caleb responded with relief. I asked, "But doesn't that sound hard, too?" Caleb didn't think so. I think he is very glad that he will fill the dad role. He'd much rather go off to work (which he obviously doesn't understand what that really entails) AND get to choose what's for dinner!

Food, Football, Friends...Fun!

There's nothing like good food shared with good friends while watching football! We spent Superbowl Sunday with our good friends and neighbors, the McInelly's. They share our love for BYU football and we've spent many Saturday's watching football--eating, cheering, yelling and screaming! We're so sad that the football season is now officially over. Here are some fun pictures of the day...

Camille getting ready to dish up...We had turkey paninis, potato skins, boneless buffalo wings, seven layer dip, chips, cookies...

Caleb and Hunter are good buddies even though Caleb is four years older!

Touchdown Colts!!! -Caleb in one of his calmer moments.

Alyssa says that Linsey is her best, best ,best friend.
They could care less about football and would rather play dress-up!
The only way to keep Caleb down!