Family Night

The weather has been SO nice I couldn't help but crave a BBQ and dinner out back.
Little sliders for our dinner will make a special treat.  Why is everything tiny so darn cute?

The girls made a sign and hung it on the back wall.
I'm wondering if that is for them or for me?

I will never eat a regular potato chip again.
Kettle chips in ANY flavor are oh-so much better!

The girls went all out and set the table, lit candles, picked flowers and were in happy heaven!

Told you sliders were cute!

 Twilight - the perfect time of night.

Fruity Lemonade.  Make lemonade then add every possible frozen fruit you have in and stir.  We had fresh leoms, frozen strawberries, blackberries, blueberries, peaches, raspberries.  So de-lish!

Today......

was a great day!

I went to Weight Watchers this morning with Tom. 1st week. I lost one pound. Hey, its something. Tom lost four! Can you see why I am a little disappointed. Men - they get to eat more and they lose weight faster. Not fair! Don't worry - I'm not mad at him and I was happy with my one pound. (I guess).

After that I rushed home so I could watch my cute nephews while my Brother and his wife went to opening day for the Diamond Backs. They had a blast and so did I. I love those little cuties. I should have gotten my camera out but I was too busy with them that I forgot...until now. Berkeley is walking now and Harley is talking a lot! What fun they are.

While they were asleep I got three loads of laundry done. I was feeling so good today! Not sure where all the energy came from but I was able to stick to the task and my brain and body cooperated! That hasn't happened in a while.

I then started making dinner, picked up Cass at the bus, stopped off at Sams Club with the four children, came home, changed diapers, finished dinner and had Family Home Evening. The kids are learning the Articles of Faith. We practiced 1,2,3 and part of 4. We will have to work on them for the rest of the week. They were excited! It was a fun night.

When I was putting the girls to bed (they had just had a fight) Cassidy was complaining about being the oldest.

"Why do I have to be the oldest?! You always make me do more things and Abby gets do do whatever she wants!" yadda, yadda, yadda!

I told her I know how hard it is to be the oldest since I am the oldest. We had a little talk about it and even though she was still bugged I think she was o.k.
I then go into Abby's room and she is complaining about being small!

"why can't I be big like sissy? She's going to be 11!!! I'm only going to be 6!! She gets to do more things than me!!"" yadda, yadda, yadda.

I then had a talk with her about being nice to her sissy - she's they only one she's got. And it's her choice whether they will be best friends of enemy's. It's all in the attitude. And let me tell you - Abby has the strong attitude out of those two! Whoa Girl!!

Hopefully they will have a good night sleep and will wake up tomorrow friends again. I never had a sister so all this sister stuff is new to me. Brothers don't care much if you say mean things and they would never punch in the stomach like someone did tonight (ahem!)

I'm off to fold another round of clothes then to bed. I'm hoping tomorrow will be another good day! Hope yours is too!♥

(I am behind in blogging but hoping to finish my vacation posts, and some other little things this week. My plan is if I write them down here it will commit me to DO IT!)

Family Home Evening

Tonight for Family Home Evening we didn't do anything super exciting but we had a great time being together and that's all that really matters. We read the scriptures, talked about them, sang some songs the girls picked out and even though it was late (we haven't even been eating dinner until about 7:30-8pm lately) we played a few rounds of the Bee Attitudes Game. I must explain this game - Gordon B. Hinkley came up with "The Be Attitudes" for the youth (and everyone really) in our church. It's in his book "Standing for Something" where he explains it.

I got this cute little game "Bee Attitudes" for about $5 at Desert Book one day because I thought it looked cute and easy. It IS cute and has become our favorite (fast) family game! The funny part is that the "Bee Attitudes" Are a little different than the originals because I think there is a copyright or something. None the less - it's a family favorite and I highly recommend getting it for your family (whether you are LDS or not) It teaches great values.

It is Abby's all time favorite game! (It reminds me when I was younger and we would play "The Dukes of Hazzard" card game for hours with my Dad. (poor man!)We then made Smores for our treat. I only made one for each of us since it was now 9:30 and I didn't want the girls to be up all night hyped up on sugar. These are one of my favorite treats! Reminds me of the beach growing up! Yummy!!

I'm not sure who is enjoying these Smores more???

Monday's Ramblings

(picture credits - Sugardoodle)

I'm having so much fun lately with our Monday Night Family Home Evenings. Tonight we went over and had dinner with our friends John and Suzanne and our other friends Rick and Sherri were in town from CO with their kids. The kids swam in the pool (at 6:30pm it was freezing!) and we grilled chicken and hot dogs and had so much fun sitting around the table talking and laughing and letting the kids roam free (after they dried off and warmed up). Tomorrow we get our grill fixed so we can have people over and enjoy the beautiful spring weather! I love food cooked on the grill. It just tastes better somehow. It's also nice in the summer so our house doesn't heat up. I'm excited to grill some pizza's. I saw on The Barefoot Contessa the easiest grilled pizza recipe. I'm all about make your own pizza and out on the grill sounds even better! Check it out here on Food TV. I mainly watch her so I can get a glimpse of my dream kitchen. I would LOVE her kitchen. White cabinets, black counters, a viking gas range. I tried to find a picture of it but no luck. I guess I'll just have to watch the show and drool!

I have a list a mile long for tomorrow so I better head off to bed. My late nights are back so it's easy for me to stay up till 12 or 1am. I need to be careful. Last night I stayed up till 2am reading Gap Creek. Finally a book to peak my interest. I haven't been into any of the books lately from my two book clubs. Not that they are bad books, I just haven't felt in the reading mood I guess. This one is good and I can't wait for the discussion. Questions:

1. What are you reading and do you love it?

2. What's your favorite cooking channel show?

3. Have you ever made pizza on the grill?

Tuesday

I'm on a roll and playing catch up. I'm a little behind in the bloggity department. I am still not feeling up to par. I am dead tired and asleep by 9pm which is so unlike me! I usually put the girls to bed, clean up the kitchen and pick up the house. Then I sit down for some nice quiet blogging /computer time or catch up on my T.V. shows. I have not felt like doing any of these things. My sickness is still lingering and sleep is winning over anything else.

However today was highly productive. I took my car in to have the emissions done then stopped off at Marshall's to see if I could find the girls some Easter dresses. We found two cute ones for Abby. She LOVES them and has worn one of them non-stop since we bought it. It even came with a matching dress for her dollie. SO CUTE! And at $14.99 how could I say no???

I then dropped Abby off at pre-school while I headed to the grocery store. I hate grocery shopping. I didn't make a list so I was going in blind - never a good idea. I spent the entire two hours Abby was at school in the store. Geez! And what's up with the prices?? The news is right -food is up by A LOT!!!

Then we headed to the $1 store for Easter stuff. That sure is a fun store! I found cute stuff like Easter socks, candy, eggs, and the cutest fly swatter EVER!!! I couldn't resist and at only $1 I bought it without thinking twice! I might go back and stock up for V.T. gifts or fun B-day bag toppers. You can have a smile on your face while swatting those darn summer flies.

Then we had another cute family over for FHE tonight since they can't do Mondays. I think we are going to meet with them once a month and rotate houses. Maybe even add some more families into the mix. I made dinner and they brought dessert. Tom gave a cute lesson out of the Friend Magazine and then we had a mini Easter egg hunt (that went with the lesson) Good food, good friends and a lot of fun!

(sorry about the pictures, blogger won't let me get them straight no matter how many times I have tried!!!)

Mondays

Mondays. What can I say. I woke up to a ransacked house and a whole list of things to do. I didn't feel bad about it though. The weekend was so great that it has carried over into today. I have a ton of laundry as you can see by the above photo. My goal: to get it ALL done AND put away today! I usually get most of it done and folded but put away??? I loath that part so I tend to check out during that part. I need to do better because putting laundry away is much better that going to a job and working for someone else!

The dishes also need to be done. I was LAZY and didn't do any kitchen clean-up as you can see. I don't know why I hate dishes. It only takes about 15 min to unload and re-load the dishwasher and clean up the kitchen. Why do I put it off??? Again- suck it up Cara this is a much better alternative!

The girls bathroom is a disaster! You can't tell by the picture but it's BAD!! I should have made them do it but I wasn't in the mood.

This little chick needed a bath sooo bad. You know it's bad when their head gets that smell.......you know the dirty, sweaty smell. Ewww gross! So her and Barbie 1 and Barbie 2 took a nice long soak while I cleaned. Can't get better than that!

Then we had Kurt , Pam and Patrick ,Leonda over for Family Home Evening. It was so fun and the kids loved playing with Miss Cass who had them entertained the entire time. We talked about 72 hour kits and an Emergency Family Plan in case of a disaster. Better to be safe than sorry! The food and company was perfect!

So my Monday was spent cleaning, laundry, watching Abby and London and some great food with friends and family. It turned out to be a great day! A lot of fun and a lot accomplished. Love it when that happens!

Questions:
What is your Monday like?
Do you loath laundry?
Would you rather be a stay-at-home-Mom or have a Job outside the home with adult conversation and a paycheck?