Happy Birthday, Nate

We love you, Dad, and can't wait for you to get home! Have a great one today!

Plumbers deserve a lot of money

My pictures won't upload right now because of some internal error, so instead of posting 100 pictures I'll write about my plumbing adventure this morning. We have the cheapest toilets in the world. They are always stopping up and needing to be plunged. And it's not my fault! About a month or so ago, the girls' bathroom got plugged and we haven't been able to use it since. I'll spare the details of that night, but let's just say that I plunged until I got blisters on my hands, and Nate was my hero sticking his arm in the toilet up to his elbows. Oh, we almost threw up. Anyway, we finally decided that we would have to call in some professional help on this one. Can you guess what the plumber pulled out of the toilet this morning? A washcloth. So, the question is did someone run out of toilet paper and reach for the closest thing available, or did it just fall in and nobody noticed, or did it fall in and someone didn't want to get it back out? A washcloth. It went straight into the trash can, and I'm very happy that tomorrow is garbage day.

While the Cat is Out ...

the mice can play! Or at least study for a final. Nate left on a business trip this morning. He used to do this a lot, but I'm really glad this is a rare thing. Our home is better with him in it. But I finally went through our trip pictures this evening and maybe I'll have the time and energy to post some this week. It has taken a while for us all to recover from vacation. I'm not sure I've made it yet. I must be getting old. But two weeks is a long time for a baby to be away from home and his routine. He has pretty much just wanted his mama to hold him this week. And since I'm still a vacationer in recovery, I'm going to bed.

Vacation.

Utah. Yellowstone. 2 weeks. Family. Fun. Friends. Oquirrh Mountain Temple open house. Grandpa Robbins' trains. Tennis. Bridal Veil Falls. Marshmallows over the campfire. Desserts! Road construction. Bald eagle. Herd of buffalo (they're really bison). Bear and wolf discovery center. Old Faithful. Smelly geysers. Waterfalls. Hikes -- sorry, it's just a walk Eliza. Moose. Chocolate eclair cake. Banana pudding. 1 extra bowl of banana pudding. Pictures. Dance party with Kellee. Puppet show with Spencer and Jake. M&M game. Cartwheel. Family Feud. Catch Phrase. Hannah & Emma with pipe cleaners. Fireworks. New babies. Late nights. Sleeping in. Robbins picnic and swim party. Old Maid and dominoes with Grandma Robbins. Airports and airplanes. Diaper blowout 5 minutes before takeoff. Naked baby for the rest of the night. Waiting for luggage until after midnight in the airport. Wake up early for the first day of school. Now it's time for a nap.

(I'll transfer the 700 pictures on my camera to the computer later and maybe remember some more good times we had.)

Good Food

Holidays mean good food, right? Just one more reason Father's day was very enjoyable to more than just the father in our house yesterday.

This pizza was so pretty I just had to take a picture of it. It tasted great, too!Thanks, Brigette, for a great pizza crust recipe. We love it! Wouldn't my mother's mouth drop open if she knew I voluntarily put green peppers on the side of the pizza I planned to eat?! :)

I didn't take a picture yesterday of the cinnamon rolls we made for Nate's breakfast in bed, but I should have. Oh, delicious. I posted my cinnamon roll recipe before, but I actually found an easier way to make them and it uses whole wheat and they still taste like awesome Cinnabon ones. I just used my regular bread recipe, well I admit I added an extra tablespoon of sugar because I wanted to make sure they were good but I don't know if that made a difference or not. Then I mixed in my Kitchenaid: 1 c. packed brown sugar, 1-2 T. cinnamon, 1/3 c. butter softened. Can I just say how much I love my Kitchenaid?! Then you smear that over the rolled out dough, roll it up jelly-roll style, and slice it with dental floss. Bake @ 350 for 20 minutes and top with some kind of icing, and oh yeah.

Thank goodness we're going on vacation this week because I'm ready for some more good food!

Happy Father's Day, Dads!

I am so blessed to have a wonderful father for my children. They adore him, and he is so good to them. Nikki made this crown for him to wear, and he has had it on just about all morning. Really cute and sweet.

I am also blessed to have grown up with a wonderful father. He was the most patient person I have ever met, unless JW was getting in trouble. :) He was calm, he was funny, he was creative (Hannah reminds me a lot of him with how she likes to create stuff out of junk), he could tell the best stories.

I don't have time before church to find pictures of Granddaddy White, Chuck, or Nate's dad, but they are important fathers in my life, too. Happy Father's Day to the wonderful dads in my life!

I can do a sit up!

I haven't been able to do a real sit up since my back surgery almost 12 years ago, but I can do them now. It's still hard. When I'm coming back down to the floor my back feels like it weighs a ton, but that's okay. I'll keep getting better. Today I finished my 10-week exercise assignment for my physical education class through BYU. Yeah, I've lost some weight, but the part that is really great to me is how GOOD I feel. I have energy. I can run up the stairs with Ryan, well maybe not run, but he's really heavy and he doesn't wear me out too quickly. The other day I felt like dancing in the dressing room at Old Navy. Can't remember the last time that happened. Anyway, it has really been a good 10 weeks. I'm really proud of myself for what I accomplished, and I'm excited for what I'll accomplish in the next 10 weeks.

Now what?

By some miracle, two of the three vegetable plants I put in one of my flower beds are actually producing vegetables! (The poor bell pepper is actually underneath a plant that I had no idea would grow into a tree with huge leaves. I thought it was a vine that would grow up the trellis against the wall. Whoops!) Anyway, so I have a couple of tomatoes coming along, and I think a squash plant has to be the best plant for my garden ever. I have maybe watered it a handful of times, and I did get some fertilizer on it once, but despite my unintentional efforts to kill it -- we have squash! Now, .................. what do I do with it? I tried a recipe with this squash in the picture the other night, but I don't think I want to try that one again. I have at least two more that are almost ready to harvest, and I need something better to do with them than fry them up in a bunch of butter, which is what my southern-upbringing instincts tell me will taste the best.

So, what do you do with squash? I need some recipes and cooking tips. PLEASE!!

Banana Cream Pie Smoothie

Yield: 2 servings

Ingredients:

1 cup frozen sliced ripe banana (about 1 large)

1 cup vanilla low-fat yogurt

1/2 cup 1% low-fat milk

2 tablespoons whole wheat graham cracker crumbs (about 1/2 cookie sheet)

1 tablespoon nonfat dry milk

1/2 teaspoon vanilla extract

3 ice cubes (about 1/4 cup)

Graham cracker crumbs

Place frozen banana and all ingredients in a blender and process until smooth. Sprinkle with graham cracker crumbs. Serve immediately.

Nutrition facts:
Calories 216
Fat 2.8 g
Protein 9.8 g
Carbohydrates 39.3 g

Oh the noise and joys ...

that come with little baby boys!
I just love this baby! You'll have to click on the picture and see if you can see his new tooth. Yay, Ryan, we knew you could grow one!