what a beautiful mess

Josh may be getting too old for these pictures,  and really just too old to be hanging out in his undies,  but I still think they are so cute.   And he still falls asleep during FHE, especially if we get kind of long winded.  And I do believe that she is just cute as a button too...

Joshua asked me tonight how many birthdays I want to have.  275.  I want to grow old and I really don't ever want to die.  Even though I'm pretty comfortable with what death means and where I'll go,  I still don't want to die.  And since hell would have to freeze before I could ever be translated, I picked 275 years old.  It just seemed like a safe and far away number.  I had a great day.  Trevor and the kids  made it a great day.  He fixed me breakfast, put me in the bath (not literally), and sent me to a movie.  I saw Safe Haven and it was really good... me and my Diet Dr. Pepper enjoyed ourselves.  While I was gone, they prepared birthday surprises.  I came home and the house was decorated  and a big round thing hung from the ceiling.  I unpeeled the tape holding the round mass together, and balloons, confetti and a  whole bunch of one dollar bills came pouring out on t...

I can't help it. It's some kind of mental disorder. We were talking about this and Trevor pointed out what my number one obsession is: him. Yes, that's totally true. I crowd him all night long and then wake up apologizing for it. He doesn't seem to mind my crowding though... So right now my obsessions are as follows: Trevor. Of course. The Killers. I have all of their music and listen to them all the time. Sadly, they've taken the place of Taylor Swift. Raising Hope. It is my all time favorite show. Every night we sit down with ice cream and watch a couple of episodes. It's certainly not everyone's cup of tea, but I love it. Running. I know I've ran off and on since I was in high school, but right now, I can't go a day without it. It's kept me sane these past couple of months and I can't wait to be able to go run consistently outside. I'm only running outside now if it's not too cold. So t...

Trevor bought six more chicks today so  we figured we would see what would happen  if we held it up to Carl's nose. Absolutely nothing.  He sniffs them a little but other than that doesn't have much interest in them.  Thank goodness! I love my dog. 

Our final missionary homecoming for the year 2013.  Stephen went to New Zealand and learned more about the Maori people.  He taught us a great lesson on the commandments.  Together we fixed fish and chips and cheddar cheese puffs. And for dessert we had Rice Bubble Slice. It's just fancy rice krispie treats and instead of using marshmallows, we used sugar and honey. They were much better if you ask me. And they were easy enough for Stephen to make on his own. Funny enough, Stephen picked out his drink for dinner which was Kiwi Strawberry not knowing that the Maori people call themselves Kiwi's. Stephen did a fantastic job. The whole time he was teaching us (30 minutes!!!) I was thinking about how much he reminded me of a missionary. Later after I told Trevor that, he said that he was thinking the same thing. He is going to be a great (official) missionary in nine years. Stephen makes me smile. I'm pretty sure I didn't stop smiling while he wa...

One of my favorite days of the year was on Saturday. Trevor turned 33!  He's getting younger and younger every year... although he gets mistaken a lot for being older than he actually is. We started the day off with sleeping in (that's not unusual for a Saturday),  eggs and bacon and cinnamon rolls for breakfast,   and then it was time for opening gifts,  our favorite part...  We then went and bought thirty more chicks and supplies for dinner that night.  He wanted fish tacos and bean salad.  It was such a summery meal, we all enjoyed it! We spent time outside, making a temporary home for the chickens and I picked  up a bucketful of dog poop.  It was quite yucky.  And it wouldn't be a birthday without birthday spankings  (this was the only non-fuzzy picture...)  and crazy cake with coconut frosting.  We all had a great day but more importantly, Trevor had a great day. ...

Homemade grahams.  Because they are so dang good.   Carl, my dog.  My secret agent son.  Annabelle in her DARE shirt. Raising Hope, our new favorite show.  Tim McGraw's new song "Hightway Don't Care". Baked potatoes.YUM! Diet Dr. Pepper and of course, talking to Trevor on the phone.

And that is the most sexist title to a blog post in the history of my blog.  But seriously, it feels that way sometimes.  I spent today from 3:00 to 8:00 in the kitchen.  It was for a very good reason though...  Joshua finally came home from his mission.  And we were all so excited to see him.  He went to Wales and fixed us a delicious Welsh meal of Beef and Carrot Stew and Cheesy Cauliflower.  He then taught us a lesson on the principles of the gospel.  He received his Welsh Book of Mormon  and taught us all how to say Jesus Christ in Welsh.  And then we finished the night off eating Welsh cakes.  They are so good... And we drank Diet Shasta Cream Soda. It would have been more authentic to have a mug of beer but you know.... I have a ton of dishes to do but I just can't seem to go back into the kitchen... So they'll just have to wait until tomorrow.

That would be two dogs sitting at my feet as I type here on the computer.  Jake was outside all day long in the freezing cold and I couldn't just banish him to his room after I brought him in for the night.  Even though he went straight there,  I thought I would leave him out for awhile to have some  fun with Carl.  And they are being so dang funny.  They keep chasing each other around the couch.  Jake is pretty fast but Carl is still faster....(lol) No accidents in the house yet but he did just get up on the couch  twice and listened really well when I yelled at him to get off.  How does he do at baths?  He's kind of stinky from being outside.... Other than that, he's healthy, happy, and warm (for now!).

Not really, but close enough... She (me and her) fixed a Turkish meal called Gatoula.  It was so delicious.  We even made the pita that went on the bottom of the dish.  It's something we will definitely be making again.  Plain Greek yogurt went on top and even Trevor liked that.   And we ate all of it!  That was 2 and 1/2 pounds of chicken.!  For dessert we made Baklava.  This was pretty time consuming but so worth it.  It was very sweet so we could only eat small pieces... plus it cost about twenty dollars to make  so we need to make it last! After dinner Emily told us some interesting facts about Turkey and the church there.  We were surprised to find out that the Turkish people are 99.8%  Muslim  and the rest of the population consists of all other religions.  She then taught her lesson on The Plan of Salvation and did a great job.  I love being taught the gosp...