The proper way to eat chips and salsa

First, you dip the chip - IN YOUR DRINK.

Next, you anticipate that salty/sweet goodness making it's way to your mouth.

Finally, you SCARF!

Cake? We don't need no stinking CAKE!

Logan is our no-sweets man. He does not like anything sweet. No sugar. No candy. No soda. No cookies, cake, pie, ice cream or anything resembling dessert whatsoever. Not even fruits and some veggies that naturally have a lot of sugar.

What do we do when it's time for birthday cake, you ask? Well.... we improvise!

Logan had many birthday celebrations this weekend. And needed a "cake" for each event. Here are our perfect improvisations - perfect because they are all foods that Logan LOVES!

Cake #1 - Pillsbury Toaster Scramblers

Cake #2 - $5 footlong from Subway
Cake #3 - Chicken Patties

Cake #4 - French Fry Cake!

Logan likes having a unique cake unlike anyone else he knows. He also likes being able to actually EAT his own "birthday cake". Finally we have figured out how to make this birthday boy happy on his special day!

The latest obsession

Jeremy loves to download the freebie apps for his ipod. He's had this game on his itouch for awhile now and he loves it. Just 2 days ago he downloaded it FREE to our desktop computer and now the kids can't get enough either! It is so addicting killing all those zombies!

Check it out if you haven't seen it yet and download the game FREE*. Plants vs. Zombies.
*Disclaimer: This game is NOT FREE. You must pay $19.95 to download it onto your computer.

Yes, the premise looks quite silly - Zombies trying to eat the plants and all - but I have been assured so many times that it really is very fun. And apparently, once you start you just can't get enough.

The Tooth Fairy Rocks!

As part of our Mother/Daughter Date Night Lizzie and I got to go see the Tooth Fairy movie at the $3 theater! This movie was released on DVD 3 days after we saw it at the theater.

Lizzie and I both thoroughly enjoyed this show. It was a perfect family film. The humor was cheezy (you have to expect that), there were fairies for girls, sports and guitars for boys, and Dwayne Johnson in tights for the adults to hee haw at.

The funniest part of the show was the amnesia powder - the Tooth Fairy hits an entire family with too much powder and they couldn't remember a thing! I laughed so hard I snorted! Maybe I was just so giddy to be out with the girls... but really, it was so funny. :)

Billy Crystal, Julie Andrews, and Ashley Judd also starred in this show. It was like seeing old friends on the big screen again. And whoever the guy was that played the "tooth fairy trainer" was good too - a little creepy looking at times, but definitely funny with his British accent.

The moral of the story will leave parents satisfied. The movie wraps up nice and warm and fuzzy in the end. Everyone will still believe in the Tooth Fairy and in themselves.

We give it 4 tubes of shrinking paste out of 5. Enjoy this movie with your kids - you won't be disappointed.

YARD SALE this Saturday

Here is another plug to ask for your donations:

Trevor's D.I. team is hosting a Yard Sale this Saturday, May 8th, at his elementary school to raise more money to pay for their trip to Tennessee. If you would like to DONATE ITEMS to sell at the yard sale you can drop them off at the school any time this week. We would also love it if you would like to ATTEND the Yard Sale and PURCHASE items. Here are the details again:

YARD SALE
Saturday, May 8th
@ Trevor's school
7:00 AM - 12 noon

Please click the HERE or the picture below if you would like to donate by credit card via PayPal to support our fundraising efforts to get these kids to Global Finals in Tennessee May 25-29, 2010. (You can also just click the PayPal button at the top right of this blog to donate to the very same account - all donations go to the same D.I. account)


We need all the help we can get!! Your donation is tax deductible. Please use the Tax Code on the D.I. webpage for your tax purposes.

Thank you for your support!

When the boys are away...

....the girls go out and PLAY!!

Friday night was our ward's Father & Son's overnighter campout. Lizzie and I took full advantage of this time with no boys around and planned a fun filled evening of all stuff girly!

1. We went to Red Robin with some girlfriends for dinner. I had strict instructions from Lizzie that we would NOT be greeted by the Robin. She is not a fan of larger than life restaurant mascots.

2. Then we all went to the $3 movies to see the Tooth Fairy with Dwayne Johnson. (This show was a perfect family film - check out our movie review in a few days.)

3. We picked up a dessert at McDonald's and then headed home.

4. At the movie theater there was a photo booth. The girls begged and begged to get their picture taken. The mamas all agreed that $5 was a rip off for 3 pictures so we said a firm "NO" and kept walking. I reminded Lizzie that we had the "Photo Booth" program on our computer and we could take lots of silly pictures as soon as we got home.

And heeeeeeere they are!

Check out Lizzie's cute piggies she wore today. The ringlet curls melted my heart!

We took pictures for about 30 minutes before we finally got tired (it was after 10Pm already!) and decided to call it quits.

5. We started the Project Runway finale that was saved on our DVR because Lizzie still hasn't seen it yet - she LOVES watching the clothes they make! Yeah, she passed out in less than 5 minutes.

6. Mama popped in a movie (Whip It with Ellen Page and Drew Barrymore - fun girl power show) and then another (August Rush with Kerri Russell - tear jerker, suspenseful "will they ever reunite?!" show) and finally fell asleep around 2AM.

7. We woke up the next morning and hit the donut shop for breakfast. We painted our nails while we ate and left feeling full and glittery gorgeous.

It was a great date night for just Lizzie and Me.

We prefer NO 3D with our Dragon. Thank you very much.

We got to see this movie during our 4 hour break at Trevor's DI State Finals competition. (Lizzie and Jackson were not there and they still don't know that we saw this movie so let's all keep that on the "down low/hush hush" until it comes out in the $3 theater.)
Anyway.

We are NOT fans of the 3D movie craze that is happening right now. Wearing those glasses for an entire movie is so cumbersome and uncomfortable! We chose to see the regular version.

The beginning was slightly slow moving, but the pace picked up pretty quick once the main character finally met the dragon. There were several belly laugh moments - the giving of the new helmet scene was my personal favorite.

We (Jeremy, Jennifer, Trevor, & Logan) thought it was a great movie. It was a different change of pace for the movie industry - a film about vikings. There aren't many of those out there these days.

We'll definitely get it on Netflix when it comes out on DVD. We may even buy it (depending if I can score a great coupon deal or not). If you like animated movies, have children, you are a child, if you've ever wanted to fly, if you like dragons, vikings, and like being entertained then this movie is for you. We thought it was a perfect family show. You may want to wait to see it in the $3 theater or just rent it from the RedBox, but any way you see it, you'll enjoy yourselves. It was made by DreamWorks after all. They gave us Shrek and Kung Fu Panda. They know how to make a superb movie.

I like this consensus from RottenTomatoes.com:
"Consensus: Boasting dazzling animation, a script with surprising dramatic depth, and thrilling 3-D sequences, How to Train Your Dragon soars."

We give it 4 Night Fury Dragons out of 5.

Jeremy's new job

Last Thursday afternoon Lizzie says to Benny, "Guess where my daddy works now?"

Benny guessed it, "MCDONALDS!"

Lizzie yells, "YEAH! MY DAD WORKS AT MCDONALDS!"

Thursday night was a big night for our family. Jeremy's school had a fundraiser hosted by McDonalds. Don't get confused here. He dosen't actually work at MickeyD's. He just got to help out in the drive-thru window for one evening. The kids were stoked! They really thought it was the coolest gig ever.

Check him out - being all official as he hands us our food. What service!

We just went through the drive-thru so we could see Jeremy doing his thang. Afterward, we grabbed a parking spot and took our food inside to eat with the rest of the crowd that was there to support his school.

Here is our contribution to the schools funds. Yeah, that was a lot of trash. AND a lot of food! We shelled out a pretty penny that night for our dinner. But that was the point, right?

It was a fun night for everyone. The students even provided some entertainment for their patrons - the Drum Line was there as well as the school's Glee Club. Mama got the night off from cooking dinner. The kids got to eat french fries to their hearts' content. And Daddy got to earn a pretty penny for his school.

"Bah, dah, bah, bah, pah... We're lovin' it!"

Easter Morn 2010

Easter morning was different from all other years. This morning was also General Conference for our church. It's a rarity for these 2 events to happen on the same day. Rare, and terrific at the same time. General Conference is when the leaders of our church speak to the entire membership of the church via satellite or internet. We get to stay home and watch church on TV! Our kids love these Sundays that only occur twice a year. Because of General Conference we were able to spend lots of quality time together and be uplifted at the same time. We like to spend time together as a family on holidays and this day was the perfect opportunity for that.

We did all of our traditional Easter morning activities first thing. We began with the presentation of the Easter Baskets...

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...followed by our traditional Easter Egg Hunt. (See video below.) I think we may try a new idea next year - we'll do the hunt for the younger kids, but I found a great idea for an "Easter Egg Drop" that the older kids (and adults) would absolutely LOVE.

Jeremy was feeling domestic after having been off work for almost a week. He really wanted to make something special for Easter/Conference morning. And here it is! A homemade from scratch Strawberry Pizza. Oh man. It was soooo good! He made every last bit of that pizza himself. I didn't step in once to help out. He is a great baker. Yeah, it's one of his hidden talents.

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Jeremy and I made sticky buns the night before. And I put together some sausage gravy and homemade biscuits in the morning. It was a most delicious breakfast. Full of all our favorite foods! Thomas and Amy brought homemade donuts to go with it - it was HEAVEN!!


We finished up with all of our Easter morning traditions and feasting on our carbalicious breakfast just in time to watch Conference. Here are some of the highlights of the meetings. They are bold and to the point, but that is what we need these days. The messages are full of love and guidance from our leaders. They are meant to inspire us to do better to improve ourselves.

From our home to yours: Happy Easter!

Toofless

Lizzie's tooth has been wiggly for over a month now. She hasn't made a big deal out if it and never complained one bit. The wiggly tooth was just a fact of life. Until Monday night.

She was sitting on daddy's lap watching Logan's baseball game. Daddy decides to "test the wigglyness" of Lizzie's tooth and what happened? He pulled the whole thing right out! I don't know if it hurt, but the stunned look on her face was priceless. It started to bleed a little, of course, so she held a napkin to the empty space in her gums for about 15 minutes.

When she could finally speak again, it was the cutest thing I'd ever heard! She most definitely has a little lisp! It's been fun to watch her show of her new look and figure out what to do with her tongue while she talks. Her new name is Toothless. But if she says it, it's Toofless. Say hello to Ms. Toofless!