so tasty.

These bars are mighty tasty!  I found a few recipes from all over (allrecipes, sisters cafe) and combined them to make the least rich option- and they still were pretty sweet.  Luckily I love sweets.  I liked these better once they had cooled COMPLETELY.
This is actually the halved recipe that I put in a 8 by 8 pan. The full recipe goes in a 9 by 13

1 cup flour
1 cup quick oats (regular)
3/4 cup brown sugar
1 cup chocolate chips
1/2 cup caramel topping
1/2 tsp soda
1/4 tsp salt
2/3 cup butter, melted
3 Tablespoons flour

Mix flour, oats, sugar, soda, salt and butter. Press half of the mixture into a 8 by 8 pan and set the other half aside. Bake at 350 for 10 minutes. Remove from oven. Sprinkle with chocolate chips. Blend 1/2 cup caramel with 3 T. flour. Pour (drizzle) over chocolate chips. Sprinkle the balance of the flour oat mixture over the dessert. Bake at 350 for 15-20 minutes or until light brown. Allow to cool and set before slicing.

the arsty leisy

So, my friend asked me awhile back if I'd come over to her place and let her take pictures of me to try some lighting tricks on my face.  I'll be honest- I was mortified and it definitely caught me off guard. It was waaaay out of my comfort zone- but I agreed anyway. I'm a believer that when you do things outside of your comfort zone or comfort levels- it makes you grow.  Plus- I'm looking for some personal growth so I thought it would be a good thing for me. I don't think that I'm ugly- and I'm not super self conscious about the way that I look- but I certainly don't like staring at pictures of myself or having pictures taken of just me.

Luckily Cassidy is pretty darn talented and gave me plenty of props so that I don't feel like the pictures are really me.  The last one she wanted to me to look like some scary russian "mobista".  I think that I pulled it off. The shot even creeps me out a little.  Thanks for the photo shoot, cassidy! Now next time somebody asks if they can take pictures of me I won't feel so awkward (I wish there was a sarcasm font- because I would have used it for that last sentence). 

Plus- now I can post something on here that isn't about my kids.  I try my hardest to not make my blog 100% kiddos- but they run my life and I don't do much else so it can be difficult.

So, here you go. Just a few of them. No laughing. No mean comments. It's taking a lot of guts to post these pictures.

 

 

this is the super creepy one.

 

In honor of getting the A/C fixed and actually being able to handle thinking about the arrival of summer- we had one of my favorite summer dinners.  High quality hot dogs (beef brats), fresh fruit salad, and homemade potato salad. I'm not sure why I love these things so much- because I certainly didn't grow up on them- but they make me so happy when we eat them.

The potato salad is made from scratch- and it's super easy and delish. Oh- and I like to refrigerate mine for an hour at least.  Some people like it warm.

• 4 reg. (or six red) potatoes
• 4 eggs
• 1/4 cup sweet relish (I reduced this to about 1/8 c)
• 1 clove garlic, minced
• 2 tablespoons prepared mustard ( I reduced this to less than 1 tbs)
• 1/3 cup (low fat) mayonnaise
• 2 tbs sour cream
• salt and pepper to taste

1. Bring a large pot of salted water to a boil. Add potatoes and cook until tender but still firm, about 15 minutes; drain and chop. I peeled mine.
2. Place eggs in a saucepan and cover with cold water. Bring water to a boil; cover, remove from heat, and let eggs stand in hot water for 10 to 12 minutes. Remove from hot water; peel and chop.
3. In a large bowl, combine the potatoes and eggs. In a small bowl combine sweet relish, garlic, mustard, mayonnaise and salt and pepper. Gently mix together.

Welcome, Monday. Welcome my new week.  I actually woke up to seminary with a smile on my face this morning. Mostly I think it has to do with the fact that the hell of mugginess has almost entirely lifted.  The past two days have left me drained and sluggish. I've actually felt ill.  Hopefully it was just those first few days to acclimatize and now it won't be so bad!

My goal is to blog every day this week since last week was so dismal.  I've even got some great posts planned. I have a friend who does arsty photography (that's what I'll call it anyway!) who wanted to photo my face because of the lines. She took some crazy pics. She's amazing at photography.  I'll be posting those "artsy leisy" photos tomorrow- a post you'll all be excited to see, I'm sure.

For now- it's the same ole stuff. Kiddos.

Here's Zeb with his gumball. He refuses to eat it because "that's gross, mom. You aren't supposed to eat balls".  He doesn't know it's candy.

And Ike. He eats dirt.  Like seriously licks his mud covered hands and chews.  Interestingly it's the only non food thing he eats- unlike Zeb who ate all sorts of weird things at this age.

And here's a funny zeb phrase from last week.  We ran to our bridge again to see if it was still flooded.  It was still water logged and very muddy.  We got up to it and zeb informed me "Mom, those rains came down and the floods came up, didn't they?".  They have been singing that song in nursery lately- and he loves to end questions the phrase "didn't they?".
Ike's phrases are much shorter.  His most recent new words are "shoe" and "Jesus".

I've been busy and tired and non blogging for a few days. And it's been an eventful and somewhat life changing week for us.  Our good little pal, Gabe, passed away on Monday after his short battle with a rare lung cancer. He's the little boy I blogged about a few months ago and asked for people to send Christmas cards.  He ended up getting over 5000!!  He was given just a few weeks to live at the beginning of December but with a round of chemo he amazingly survived quite healthily for another four and a half months!  Over the past four months we've gotten to know him quite well and he's taught our family a lot.  That's why I wanted to blog about it.  He has made an impact in our lives for the better.  Today was the funeral and it was a great celebration.  His family shared lots of corny jokes (he loved them) and there were lots of smiles. Gabe was happy and smiling and cracking jokes up until the last few hours of his life. Every time we went and visited gabe and his family- my kiddos would come home with a toy or treat or surprise of some sort that he'd shared with them. He was such a great little guy.  I am so grateful for the knowledge of forever families and so blessed to have the understanding that I do.

Sometimes (okay- A LOT of the time) I complain about motherhood and my children and how crazy they make me.  And while they do make me crazy and I don't always enjoy motherhood- I am so grateful for my kiddos and for the chance I have to raise a family.  I love the little rugrats to bits.

I can't complain about their messes or tantrum throwing or nastiness or how they keep me up at night when I think about the fact that my friend Wendy would give anything to be dealing with a tantrum or cleaning up gabe's messes. Or that she'd be more than happy to be up all night with her little boy tonight.

Thanks, gabe! for that lesson learned- amongst zillions of others. We'll miss you.

This kid is dead serious about pushing his babies around in this stroller.  He takes very good care of them and freaks when Zeb touches them or tries to push them around in the stroller himself.  He even lets all of the babies take turns having rides.  You may be wondering where he's getting all of these babies to push around...

Here's his favorite.  But, he still lets the football and basketball in sometimes.  Thanks, Auntie Melynda- he still loves them.

And speaking of strollers and babies-  this is what we were met with on our run this morning.  I asked Zeb if we should cross.  He responded: "we could try it, mom".  We decided against crossing.  It was pretty cold this morning still and there was lots of water on the other side of the bridge!  I really don't mind the coolness- but I'm sick of packing up and then pulling out winter hats and gloves OVER and OVER again.  This morning we definitely needed them!

the health fair

Yesterday we went to the YMCA family Health Fair and the kiddos had a blast. Zeb was most excited that he got to go to school/work with Kent (the fair was on campus) and that his favorite "teacher" from the kidzone, Miss Erin, was there.  She calls our kids "Z-e-b" and "I-k-e" because Zeb is very particular about making sure their names are spelled correctly on their name tags every day.

The kiddos did crafts, played games, ran through obstacle courses, and had snacks.  The event was pretty educational and successful except for the argument Zeb had with the "safety booth lady" about crossing the street.  He insisted that he does it by himself and never crosses with me.  He was not about to step down or concede that he needed to cross with me.  Finally, I at least got him to tell her that he always looks both ways first.   In my defense- I do not let him cross busy roads without me!  I think he's a little stubborn and likes to be right. I'm not sure where he gets those traits.

I can't get him to look at me.  ever.

This kid loooovees markers.

I think at least half of all Ike pictures are of him in this position. He loves to crouch down like that.  It must be lots easier than just sitting.