Whatever Works

Out of sheer desperation to get Tate to take a nap,

I told him that if he napped really good then he just might LAY AN EGG.

(Now you know why Tate is so crazy-he gets that from his Mama)

Speaking of which... I've determined that I am 28% Weirdo! YEAH!!!

You Are 28% Weirdo

You're a little weird, but you'd be even weirder if you didn't have a few quirks. You are just strange enough to know it, but nobody else seems to notice your weirdness. That's because, deep down, everyone is a little freaky!

Are You A Weirdo?

Big HUGE Blessing (To Me at Least)

I have to admit the fact that up until YESTERDAY, I had NEVER taken a shower or bath with Tate being awake without Bryan being here. With Tate being accident prone & with his passing out spells when he falls or gets hurt, I've never been brave enough...

I would always plan it just right to where I'd wake up SUPER EARLY just to get a shower that day, or I'd just wait and take a shower in the afternoon. Well yesterday, Tate unexpectedly woke up at 5:30 AM and I soon realized that since Bryan was coming home late, I wasn't going to get a shower unless I was BRAVE.

So, I put on "CARS", locked Tate in our bedroom, and instructed him not to do certain things all of which he's done before:

• Jump on the bed or ride his scooter on our bed


• Play with the outlets


• Hide in the closet and pull down all my clothes


• Get into our nightstands and lose our STUFF for us.

I ended up taking a 1-2 minute shower, (stopping half way through to check on Tate) but I did get my hair and body washed. And believe me, I FEEL SO BLESSED!

He's Hooked!

Okay, I never ever EVER in a million years would have thought that Bryan would be so passionate about FAMILY HISTORY. We went to a little class on Tuesday about the new program new.familysearch.org and he is now officially HOOKED. So... he spent the entire afternoon and part of the evening yesterday working on it! I LOVE IT!!!

Family Traditions

Today was a RAINY DAY! We've had quite a few of those lately...
One of my FAMILY TRADITIONS is that whenever it rains, we have popcorn and orange julius.
So here we are continuing this little tradition.



Some of our other traditions include:

1. Decorate the bedroom door of the birthday person with wrapping paper, and tape on some of their favorite things (snacks, small toys, favorite cereal etc.) It's always been lots of fun!


2. Perform at a Nursing Home at Christmas time. We just sing some favorite songs, and then visit with some of the people afterwards. (Unlike the rest of my family... I'm really shy when it comes to singing in front of people) So, I have to admit that this is one of my least favorite traditions.


3. On Halloween night, my Mother always made stew that was baked inside of a pumpkin. It was always delicious! I really want to keep this tradition going...


4. On Christmas Eve, we would jot down on a slip of paper a "Gift to Jesus" or something that we were going to work on or improve during the following year. Then we would place it in the toe of our stockings until the following year. It was always fun to see if we had actually accomplished our goal when we pulled it out again.


5. Every Mother's Day, me and my siblings would wake up early and make breakfast for our Mom. We usually made something simple (eggs, toast, juice, etc.) and then we would bring it to her on a tray, and she would eat it in bed while we all sat around visiting.

I'm sure that there are alot more family traditions that we have, but these are just a few that I thought of off the top of my head.

I LOVE having family traditions, and I really do think that they help to unite families! Here is a really good book with a ton of fun ideas of different traditions. You can buy it HERE.

What are some of your family's traditions?

Making Tortillas

I've had a few people ask me lately for my TORTILLA RECIPE. So, here it is... Page #40 of my SOON TO BE FINISHED recipe book. Enjoy!!!

Click on the picture to enlarge.

Oh and just for your information, I got my tortilla press HERE along with the dough relaxer.

Magnetic Chore Charts

Tate LOVES to do his chores...
His favorite is making his bed. He works on it for a long time, and he really does try his very best!We've used a couple different CHORE CHARTS in the past, ( see HERE & HERE) and I've determined that this one works THE BEST for us. It's short and simple, I don't have to worry about losing any cards, it sticks to anything magnetic; fridge, dishwasher, filing cabinet, and the best part is that you can write on it with a dry erase marker. After Tate completes a chore he gets to cross it off which is his very FAVORITE PART.

I figured that if it works for Tate, then it just might work for other kids as well.

So... I've started selling them.

Here is a sample BOY CHART

And here is a samle GIRLS CHART

They are:

• 8 inch x 8 inch


• 100% waterproof and spill proof


• scratch proof


• made out of a thick solid magnet with a laminated front.


• I can make custom charts if desired


• $10/each

Email me if you're interested

onesmartchicken@gmail.com

Family Hike

We love to go hiking in the Superstitions behind our house. Here's some pics from our latest adventure.

We saw this waterfall and set out to reach the base of it.We walked
And walked
And walked... then finally gave up and took a bunch of pictures instead. WHAT FUN! Oh the joys of living in the desert.

Here is the beautiful SUNSET when we left.

BIG NEWS

In the SEVEN years that we've been married... I got my VERY FIRST FOOT MASSAGE from Bryan tonight! It was AWESOME, even though it had to be with socks on. Bryan is so not a foot person. In fact this is one of the very rare times that he's ever even touched my feet. It's usually on accident. I had to BRIBE Bryan big time into letting me take these pictures.

Something Out Of Nothing

This is what I make when I've put off going to the store for too long, and there is hardly anything edible left in the house.

The only required ingredients are:

2 Cups Flour
1 Tbsp. Baking Powder
1 tsp. Salt
1 Cup Water

Oil for Frying

All you have to do to make this is; mix the dry ingredients, add water, roll out and cut in pieces, fry in hot oil.

(My favorite thing about this recipe is that no rising is involved-so it only takes like 5 minutes TOTAL)

To make it a little healthier and more of a meal, spread a few refried beans on top, add a little cheese, lettuce, and "Lousiana Hot Sauce".

Then for dessert, try one with honey and powdered sugar on top.

Painting Again...

Our bedroom walls are now a blue grey color. I absolutely love it, but I think that we might have to do something about a different bedspread. Red doesn't quite match anymore.

Making Valentines

This is what we've been up to today... Painting Tate's hand red and placing it on a thick flexible magnetic sheet bought HERE.

Cutting out the handprint magnet.
Tate writing his name on the front of the handprint.
Smiling for the camera and happy to be done!
Playing with the magnets on the refrigerator. Repositioning them every few minutes throughout the day. Anxiously awaiting to give them to Grandparents.

L-O-V-E Spells Love

I had this IDEA in my head yesterday, and so I ran up to my favorite store "MICHAELS" and got:

• 4 Wooden Letters
• 4 12x12 Scrapbook Paper
• Ribbon
• Cute Accessories

I also ordered 3 Sepia toned pics of Bryan and I from Walgreens.

I already had everything else to make this:

• White Acrylic Paint
• Three Pieces of Chip Board
• Mod Podge

Basically, I just applied mod podge to the front of the letters and placed the full sheet of scrapbook paper on top of the letters. I used a brayer to make it really flat. After it was somewhat dry, I trimmed away the excess paper from the letter. Then I used a sanding block to ruffen up the edges to make it look a little worn.

For each of the pictures, I used mod podge to attach them to the chipboard. And... I used the same technic of sanding the edges of the pictures.

After that, I pretty much just played around with where I wanted my pictures and accessories to go on my letters. And that was it! It was a fun and simple craft + it looks nice in our bedroom!

Totally Random

So yesterday, ALL of the clocks in our house were the wrong time. Isn't it so crazy that they all decided to stop working the same day? Weird!

Thank goodness for computers, or else we would have missed James' homecoming talk altogether! Luckily we were only 15 minutes late for Sacrament Mtg.

Janelle Joy Photography

We got Tate's pictures taken on Friday. I'm so happy with the way they turned out. I was really worried when he was being a little stinker and not cooperating at all. But AMAZINGLY Janelle was able to capture some really good ones. She has some GREAT SPECIALS going on right now. Check out her website HERE.

I realized about 20 minutes before leaving to get the pics done, that I don't have hardly any pictures of just me and Tate, so I got ready really fast.

There are a total of 27 pics that turned out wonderful, but I figured that I probably shouldn't put them all on here.

7 Years on Sunday

It's really AMAZING how fast time flies! I can hardly believe that we've been married that long, it seems like only yesterday. I was thinking the other day about 7 years, it's equivelant to an entire time at Elementary School which seemed like an eternity to me when I was young. So, I guess we are just OLD MARRIED PEOPLE. But, the good thing is we're still in LOVE.

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