Catch Up #6: Everything Else!

Ok, so this post is a mish mosh of many of the other things I wanted to post about, but didn't get around to it! Sorry if its really hard to follow my ramblings!

First off, yummy food! Quite a while ago, Rhonda posted about a desert she made (sorry, I'm way to lazy to track down her recipe right now!!) I took a few liberties with it and changed some things to make some delicious caramel peach napoleons! Oh, they were divine!

They were really easy too! Bake some puff pastry that has a little bit of melted butter spread on it and some sugar sprinkled on it. After it cools, top with whipped cream and caramelized peaches. (While your pastry is baking, caramelize peaches with some brown sugar and butter in a skillet.) Top with another piece of pastry, sprinkle with icing sugar and drizzle with caramel sauce. Enjoy!

Next topic of discussion: a sewing project. I was in Great Falls quite a while ago looking at one of my favorite stores (Ross) and I found a super cute dress for only $5!! However, because I'm tall, their short dresses are never long enough! I decided, though, that it would make a super cute maternity top with a few alterations.

Before:

Front view (yes, I am aware at how painfully hideous my bathroom is!)

Side ViewAfter

Front Side

What do you think?

Finally, TJ got to play a little bit of soccer this year and he loved it! They didn't have a team for his age, but they did a week long camp. It was quite hilarous to watch him. Sometimes, he was right in there, but often he was off in his own little world! His "coach" Coach Spike, was great and TJ was really sad when it was all done! They held it in the ice arena and now any time we drive by, he talks about his soccer camp!

They played a game at the end of every day. In this one, Coach Spike was "Shrek" and he had all the soccer stuff. They kids had to get it from him while he was sleeping, but when he woke up, they had to freeze, no matter what he did! TJ was pretty awesome at staying frozen! Spike was hanging cones on his fingers and ears and TJ didn't even budge!

Off in la la land.

Catch Up #5: Manda's Grad

It took a while and a lot of work, but Manda FINALLY finished her schooling! She is now working to get her apprentice hours and I'm super proud of her! The school held a banquet and cermony for the class and their families. It was a great night out. Sadly, Dad was REALLY sick, so he wasn't able to make it, so Jessica Tatlow took his place. Way to go Manda!

Catch Up #4: TJ's Birthday

My little man turned 4 this year! It has gone SO quickly! He is a little obsessed with Angry Birds, so we decided to have an Angry Birds party!

Really, I wanted to keep things pretty simple, so I got some decoration ideas from here . They turned out super cute and the kids loved them!

I took a bunch of boxes and used them as bricks, ect and the kids tossed balls at them to knock the pig balloons off. They loved it, but I forgot to take pictures! I also forgot to take pictures of the pig pinata we made. It was the toughest pinata EVER!! Not to make, but to break! The kids were hilarious, though. They kept encouraging each other and all started chanting "Kill the pig" over and over! I couldn't find black balloons, so I used the black bird template as treat bags. I also took some foam easter eggs, feathers, googly eyes and other assorted crafty stuff and the kids made their own birds. (Again, no pictures. I kind of suck at remembering to take pictures!)I made cupcakes for desert and, I must tell you, I was SUPER lazy when it came to the cupcakes! I wanted to make birds to go on top, but had no desire to take the time to make them out of fondant. And I knew the kids wouldn't like the taste of them. So, while at the local bulk store gathering ideas, I found individually wrapped rice krispie squares 10 for $1.99. I know its ridiculously easy to make rice krispie squares, but with all the renos and feeling so sick and life, ect. I was looking for ANYTHING to make it easier! So with some rice krispie squares, an egg cookie cutter and some dipping chocolate, I made these...TJ and his friends loved them....And so did Myles the next day, when he found the left overs the next day!!

Catch Up #3: Easter

Easter was fun, but VERY busy!

On the 16th, we did Easter dinner with my Mom (I forgot my camera, so I don't have any pictures!) On the Friday before Easter, we did Easter dinner with the rest of my family at Amanda's place. We had a little egg hunt for the kids and they loved it!

Saturday was the town's Easter Egg Hunt, which TJ loved. (Myles and Adi were both napping, so TJ gathered treats for everybody) It was a really nice day out, so there were lots of people there! TJ was kind of sad he didn't get a "special" plastic egg, but got over it the more he filled up his basket!

Sunday morning, the bunny brought our baskets while we were at church and they boys were VERY excited. We tried SO many times to get Myles to stand for a picture with TJ and their baskets, and there was no luck at all!

Later on Sunday, we went to Trevor and Cheri's for dinner with the Gilbert's. It was a beautiful day and the kids had fun playing outside!

Catch Up Post #2 : Great Falls

*Catch up posts in no particular order!*

Over a year ago, James and I were invited by some great friends of ours to go on a week long trip to the Domincan Republic. We've never been on a honeymoon (we spent our wedding night in our apartment and I went to work the day after!) and haven't been on a trip just the two of us since we went to James' mission reunion two months after we were married. Needless to say, we were REALLY looking forward to it! Sadly, life happened, James decided to go back to school and the stars were against us. We ended up having to use the money we'd saved for the trip to live. We managed to take a very little bit and go to Great Falls for the weekend. It was fun, but cold! Still, it was a nice, welcome break!

Here we are, about to head off! (James really NEVER smiles in pictures)

Just testing out the bed! The ceiling was a little low, so I had to crouch!

Catch Up #1: Valentine's Day

* Catch up posts are in no particular order!*

Yep, you read that right! I'm going WAY back to February to write about Valentine's Day. With James going back to school this year, money was tight. I knew this would be tough for James, as his love language is definitely gifts! I told him I didn't want any gifts, I just wanted a romantic night, just him and I. Imagine my suprise when I found out we were double dating with good friends of ours. The men set up a series of stops, each of which had a clue leading to the next stop, some goodies and a present for each of us. The final stop was dinner and then a movie. It was very fun, but not terribly romantic. Oh well! Definitely gets an A for effort!

Jessica showing off one of the clues.

Some of the loot.

Umm, some of the gifts were a little questionable!! ;)

FINALLY!!

I FINALLY got James to take his computer and my memory card into the shop and figure out why they didn't like each other! And its fixed! SO, now I've got a HUGE pile of pics to upload, sort through, and maybe try (again) to figure out this photoshop thing so they don't look quite so awful. Or I may just skip that step (I'm getting stressed out just thinking about it!) and go right to catching up on my posting! Hopefully, you'll be inundated with posts from me soon!!