Girls Girls Girls

My brother recently read an article detailing how the human brain forms. The frontal lobe, where the "reasoning" skills are stored, doesn't actually fully develop until the age of about twenty.

That explains a lot, doesn't it?

I spent this last weekend in Midlandia, hanging out with my other five nieces. This time I only had six kids. We had a good time, girls are so much fun. We went shopping for new skirts. Well, five us went shopping for skirts and two of us cried like babies. One cried for no good reason, and one cried because the other one was crying. Then I finally quit crying and remembered to get diapers while we were standing in the checkout lane. Anyway, the skirts were so cute I thought I'd take pictures of the girls in them. You know. Because Midland had so many things to do that we decided to stay home and hang out. It was a brilliant plan. I laid Tristan down for a nap, and we had perfect lighting. Until the one who cries for no reason was screaming so loud she woke Tristan up. So he decided to scream the whole time we took pictures unless I held him. Or, unless one child who obviously lacks a fully developed frontal lobe and decided to give him an entire bag of chocolate chips. Because that is always a good idea.

And then they let the little girl in the brand new white onsie, headband and skirt have a whole handful of chocolate chips, too. Which ended up on my new shorts, shirt, leg, hands, sidewalk, blanket, eggs, ponies, tea pot, hat, dirt, plants, basket, and bike. Pretty much anything that was clean and in reach. It's obviously a lack of frontal lobe development. But that is basically how the weekend went..... watching little people who lack frontal lobes do things that make you smack your frontal lobe and ask, "Why would you do that!? WHY!?" Just kidding. They're angels. Really. All of them.

French Breakfast Muffins

Being around five girls makes me want to bake. So for breakfast this morning I jumped on Pinterest and made French Breakfast Muffins. These muffins go by other names, so far I've seen Cinnamon Sugar Donut, French Breakfast Puffs, Feather-Light Muffins, Paris Puffins, and Cinnamon Muffins. Whatever you want to call them, they're delicious. You will need:

1/3 c. butter, melted
1/2 c. sugar
1 egg (room temperature)
1 1/2 c. all purpose flour (I would do 1 1/4 cups)
1 1/2 tsp. baking powder
1/2 tsp. salt
1/4 tsp. nutmeg
1/2 c. milk

Topping
1/2 c. sugar
1/2 c. butter, melted
1 tsp. cinnamon

Preheat oven to 350F.

In a medium-large bowl, sift together all dry ingredients. Add wet ingredients and stir until combined, but still a bit lumpy. Mine was super lumpy-there was too much flour. Don't overmix. Scoop batter into muffin tins that have sprayed with cooking spray. I used a small muffin tin and got about 3 dozen muffins. Bake for 20-25 minutes, or until they just start to turn a bit golden at the edges.

For the topping, mix sugar and cinnamon in a small bowl. Place melted butter in another small bowl. Dip the warm muffins in melted butter, then dip/roll the muffin in cinnamon sugar. This was a lot of butter and sugar! Since you are basically just getting a sugar topping, you probably don't need so much butter and sugar. I mixed my butter and sugar together (almost like a glaze) and dipped the muffins in that. It was delicious. Either way, you can't go wrong. It's butter and sugar. Bon apetit!

The Sonster's Birthday

Once upon a time, a long time ago, there was a platinum blonde girl. That girl ended up not being friends with another girl. And some guy. And the girl and the guy that she wasn't friends with became friends because they weren't friends with her. It's a long story. But one night another friend had a party. And the platinum blonde girl was at the party. And so was the guy she wasn't friends with. And he invited the girl she wasn't friends with because he thought it'd be funny to make her mad. It did. Then that girl met another girl who was at the party, too. Years later, they're still friends. Even if she made fun of that girl when she was at the party. But that's OK. Because she probably deserved it. She was only at that party to make the other girl mad. Who does that? Anyway, today is her birthday. It reminds me of another birthday of hers we celebrated. I, being Mormon, showed up to the birthday party with cake and ice cream. I was the only one who ate it. Everyone else ate liquor and beer. Anyway. I thought in honor of her birthday I'd list 28 reasons why I like her. Here we go: 1. Hannah Montana.2. She likes to not go to the beach if it's fake raining3. If we were in trouble, she could save my life. Or at least give me an IV. 4. She is shorter than me. 5. Maybe she's not. But it's my blog so I can say what I want. 6. Her wedding was an awesome weekend that she planned just for me.7. She didn't make me wear an ugly bridesmaid dress. 8. She makes me laugh so hard I cry.9. And sometimes wet my pants a little.10. She isn't easily rendered speechless, but I've done it to her once. Remember that?It was when we were helping you move and we moved the bed and ..... I'll stop. It's your birthday.10. She can hula hoop like a rock star.11. She plays Ghost in the Graveyard.12. We do lunch.13. We discuss important issues-like WTF was Jim doing with Drew B???14. She's smart. Sometimes this is to my disadvantage.15. She said the nicest things to me after I had Tristan. So nice, I wrote them in a little journal because it made my whole week better.16. She has beautiful eyes17. She knows how to be an adult. 18. If I had to have a life line on a TV show, I'd probably call her.20. I like that when she cleans her closet, I benefit.21. She is logical. I know, I know. Most people might not think so ;) but she really is.22. We have plotted to buy giraffes.23. One time my Mom kicked her out of the house for saying the F word. So she sat on the porch and smoked a cigarette. We weren't friends at the time but I thought it was awesome.24. She has the best laugh. It's infectious.25. And good hair. She really does. And, she had feathers in her hair before it was super trendy. The rest of y'all are posers.26. She's a good dresser. This is important because of reason 20.27. She has a freaking stellar credit score. One that should be framed.28. She is a safe driver. This is random. But it's nice to know when you are in the car with her.Also, there are two 28's because #5 didn't really count.28. She's the best friend you could ever ask for. So, here is to a great birthday... I hope it's full of food, friends and fun!!! And unicorns, if there's a chance. ... and your birthday card is STILL on the table. It's just another way to extend birthday week. See, it's not over until you get the last card.

So this one time...

Five years ago, Jessica and I were single, we had blonde hair, and worked together at TGI Friday's. I drove the purple beast, and she drove her little Hyundai. When we got off work on Saturday, we were going to Jackson Hole for a Moose game.

Anyway, being in Idaho Falls when the rest of the group was in Rexburg proved to be a little bit of a problem. We had to change clothes in the bathroom. We didn't have our make up. We couldn't fix our hair. And, we had to figure out the fastest way to meet up with our friends before we missed the game. One of the boys suggested we meet at a random haystack in the middle of nowhere. When he gave me the directions I remember thinking, "This is ridiculous." I tried to tell him, but he insisted that he knew what he was doing. So, we drove out out to the middle of nowhere and took an extra forty minutes to get to the game. Sad part of my day? Jeff was supposed to be my date, but because of this kid's amazing directions, I didn't have the heart to make some poor guy drive to Jackson Hole by himself just to hang out with me. Little did I know that he would have gladly done it. After the game we went to the Inn and got the typical broke-college-student food: Pie and hot chocolate. And then we drove forever and ever back to the random haystack in the middle of nowhere to get to Jessica's car. We were so glad to get into the car so we could talk about the whole night. On the way home there was a random turn that came out of nowhere.We found it with the front of Jessica's car....

And hit it a little too hard.... And sent Jessica's poor car to the shop for over a month. Poor thing. It was pretty sad. But, it got fixed and is none the worse for the wear. In fact, her husband still drives it to work.

As for me? I don't have my purple car. I sold it after it started catching on fire when I drove it more than three miles. And Jeff? Jeff and I ended up hanging out the next day. And then the day after that. And the day after that...

Dog Walking Service

Chunky is seriously my second child. I spoil this dog way too much. But look at his brown eyes, and his little eye brows and tell me that he isn't just the cutest thing you have ever seen. I can't help myself. It's Spring Break, so Jeff is home and so are all the neighborhood kids. Yesterday the neighbor kids came over. Jeff answered the door. "Hey, Brian! It's Brian, right?" I laughed, and corrected them. They didn't miss a beat, they were selling their dog walking services. They will walk your dog around the corner and back for $.25 for the first dog, and $1 for the second. Jeff asked if they could walk two dogs separately for $.50, to which they agreed. I love kids. We don't have a second dog, so we just let them have Chunky. Not because he needed a walk, but because I am all for free enterprise. When I said, "Yeah, you guys can walk Chunky." They totally freaked. The little boy turned to his sister and yelled, "We got one! We got one!"

Chunky is not dumb. He knows kids and leashes and no adult supervision is never a fun idea. I had to shove him out the door and then shut it quickly. About three minutes later they were back at the door and as soon as I opened it, Chunky bolted inside dragging the leash. The kids were out of breath. "He really (pant), really (pant) wanted to come home!" I paid them $.50 because there were two of them.

That was a bad idea.

It's only Monday and they've been over twice today. Apparently I am the only sucker in the neighborhood. I hope Friday comes soon because I can't afford these kids being out of school all week.

Little Walkin Man

I posted a little bit ago that Tristan was walking... and it's more than official than the official announcement. That baby doesn't crawl much anymore. I love seeing him walk, his little wobbly steps that went from a zombie walk, then to walking with only one foot forward, and now to a full blown baby waddle where he tries so hard to run. It breaks my heart to see him suddenly grow up so fast. Lately he has seemed to suddenly turn into a little person and not so much a baby. Tonight he grabbed his bottle, brought it to Jeff and practically threw it at him. Then he whined. Since I was in the kitchen, Jeff tossed me the bottle and I started to fill it up. Seeing his bottle disappear was not what he was hoping would happen. Tristan was almost running into the kitchen whimpering about the whereabouts of his bottle, until he saw me shaking it and lit up like a Christmas tree. I, on the other hand, seeing this tiny little baby, standing, staring up at me with a big old smile just made me melt and wanna cry. When did he get so big?? How could he do this to me??? We're going to have to have another baby, I guess. Then it would be a little easier to let him grow up. What else do you do? Get a puppy?

Most Amazing Roast. Ever.

Cooking is a talent I have recently discovered. So far I've found it easy and fun, and I love trying new recipes. We recently had a roast at a friend's house that was mouth-wateringly delicious. Last night I was grocery shopping and found some great deals on meat-one of them being a roast. I was going to just throw it in the crock pot, but Jeff begged me to see if we could get our friend's Mom's secret recipe. He obliged, and spent an HOUR texting it to me. I followed the directions exactly, and behold... the most amazing roast in the world. We all sat around and drooled while we ate it, and agreed it was absolutely amazing. Even Tristan ate a good serving. I would share the recipe-but it's a super family secret. But I had to at least share the picture of dinner.... look at the steam, the Texas plate, and those delicious vegetables! Seriously. I can't wait to make this again.

They're Still Alive-but I Think They Hate Me

I took another trip down to Houston to babysit the kids again. I flew in Wednesday the 22nd and was flying out again on Sunday. When I got there, my sister informed me I couldn't leave until the following Sunday. She had tickets to Kid Rock and Lady A at the Houston Rodeo in the middle of the week! Oh. And they were going out of town again the next weekend and wanted me to watch the kids. I accepted their bribery. It's been a while since I've been to the Rodeo.So, instead of staying for a few days, I stayed for a week and a half. I missed Jeff. Jeff missed us. I somehow managed to have fun at Kid Rock.

I left Tristan with Tiffany and took my friend Tanya. We were baby free the whole night! That was fun. And Kid Rock was awesome.... and so was watching the three drunk guys dance in front of us all night.

The rest of the pictures are out of order, but it doesn't really matter cause the trip was a blur anyway. The best part of staying longer was actually getting to see Tiffany! We took the kids to Ihop for National Pancake day on the 28th. Awesome. Tristan does not have patience to wait for pancakes...

Andie is a phenomenal artist. Her entire body was covered. It wasn't even my fault-both her parents were home.

This picture cracks me up. I couldn't find her one morning and here she was... just hanging out in the tub.

Tristan and Andie... in a tub with water this time. They were hilarious in the tub together. They copied everything the other one would do. Makes me excited for two kids.

Emma is a state finalist in the National American Miss competition. We had to shop for heels that were age appropriate for an eleven year old. Personally, I don't think there are heels appropriate for that age but hey-she has to win this!

It was fun to hang out with Tiff-we went to one of the kids games... (yes, that is my sister who has had seven kids. Seriously. And we're the same size.)

There is about an eight second time difference in these pictures. Can you see Tristan trying to hug Andie? I say hug, but he was really using her for balance.

One of the days that I was feeling crazy I took the three little ones to the store. Um. If there hadn't been samples for them to eat I would have left them all in frozen food aisle and left without them. What a handful of monkeys. And somehow I still managed to spend $80.

Oooh the little artist.... thank heavens this washed off. I am telling you, she is bad!!! Ha. One Saturday I had to get the kids to baseball games almost every hour and a half. So, I left the two littles with Tucker and took the rest of them with me. I almost died laughing when Tucker called and asked when he was going to get some relief. I guess they both had woken up from their naps. Andie filled a cup of water up from the cooler (spilling it everywhere) and went to give Tristan a drink, (spilling it everywhere). Tucker was cleaning up the water at the cooler when he saw that Tristan was soaked and started cleaning that up. Meanwhile, Andie, now out of water, went BACK to the cooler to refill. He went to clean that up while she went to give Tristan another drink. That was when he called, "I can't keep up with this!!! I need help!" Before I could respond he said, "Ohmygosh Andie is on the table dumping out a bag of Chex Mix and Tristan is on the stairs! I gotta go!" Needless to say, I ran home in between games....

The kids on Go Texan Day. Super. Cute. Oh, you mean your state doesn't have a "Go Whatever Day?" Well, welcome to Texas. It's a great place to live and we're proud of it.

Ah. This photo. I don't know why I am posting this. This was seriously so bad. I had just picked up all the kids from school and we headed home. Rushy Roo can get in and out of the car on his own. I don't have to actually help him. And, since we were going a quarter mile from the park to the house, didn't make him sit in the front in his booster. Anyway, I carried Andie and Tristan, who were both sleeping, in the house and laid them down for a nap. Then I grabbed Tucker to drop him off on his survival camp out so he could kill a chicken for dinner, and left Emma in charge of the kids for half an hour. Ten minutes into the car ride I smacked my head, "Agh! I promised Rush he could with us so we could stop at the store and get peaches! I feel so bad." Tucker looked at me like I'd lost it. "Are you kidding? He's in the back seat." I thought HE was joking. "Are you joking!?" I said. Nope. He wasn't. Rush had been asleep in the back the whole time. In fact, he just stayed asleep til we got home... he woke up as we pulled into the driveway, no clue his awesome Aunt left him there and asked where everyone was. I'm just super glad it was 60 degrees out and late in the day so he didn't cook! Geez! I am a bad person!

This was the sunset one night. Ah-I miss the trees!

I put Panda's hair in pig tails. She is so dang cute it's easy to forgive her for the artistness in her.

I posted this one on Facebook, but it was a chubby bunny competition with Nilla wafers. Tristan won. He had three in his mouth. Then he took them out to show everyone and they all gagged.

This is how Panda eats her cereal.

This is how Landen and Tristan ride. Tanya picked me up from the airport AGAIN and we went to lunch and to the mall with our little men. They were awesome lunch dates. They smiled, and flirted, and were cuddly... love our little boys.

They fed each other crackers at lunch. It was so funny.

At the Rodeo.... overall it was a fun stay! I think the house was a little more orderly than it was the last time I lef8t 411 (thank you, Tristan) and no one died in the knife fight. Now that I am home and with Jeff I can miss the kids again. Tiffany has such great kids. They honestly almost don't need a babysitter.

Remember the Alamo, Oreo

Part of being a Texan is taking years of Texas history. It's important to know what a great place you are living in, that's why we have entire months dedicated solely to Texas history. We teach Texas dance steps, songs and the way of life. We even pledge to our flag every morning after we pledge to the USA. Oh, yes. We do.

I'm proud of Texas. It's a great place to live and be from. Our economy is strong, our governor has beautiful hair, the men are brave, and our women are beautiful. Our roots go clear back to when we fought for our freedom a 176 years ago at the Alamo. It's a beautiful story. So much courage for those few men to stay and fight 5,000 Mexicans. My brother and his friend argued for five hours one time if the Alamo was a victory. The answer? Yes. It was. I don't care what Enos says. The fact that those men were cut off from all supplies and help and still managed to stay alive and keep the Alamo for as long as they did, while slaughtering a TON of Mexicans, it was a major victory. It gave the other Texans the time they needed to gather their troops so we could eventually catch Santa Anna running away in a woman's dress. The sissy. You'd have never caught Davy Crockett running away in a dress, he died fighting. But Texans just are that way. Strong, proud, and amazing. Another important part of today's history is that the blessed Oreo turns 100. That is 100 years of amazing, chocolatey goodness. I think Oreos have made an amazing dent in our culture. Is there a more recognizeable cookie? Even those cows that have been around forever and ever, the ones that look like an Oreo, have lost their real name because everyone calls them Oreo cows. And we all know what cow I am talking about when I say that, even though I have no clue what they really are. Oreos are an amazing cookie and I am ever so grateful for their birth!

Happy birthday to a beautiful cookie-and Remember the Alamo!

Not His First Rodeo

Ok. Maybe it is. But it definitely won't be the last. I am counting down the years (5) until he is old enough to do the Mutton Busting. That is my favorite event of the rodeo. My little niece did it last night and it was so cute.

Tristan had a pretty good time. He loved the petting zoo and could've harassed lambs all night. He wasn't such a fan of Lady Antebellum though. He wanted to go to bed. And live she sounds and talks like Dolly Parton... And thats not a compliment.

But overall it was a balst. I love the rodeo. I didnt think I was going to go this year but it worked out that I am still in town.

Anyway