{Pinterest}

 I am like many other people, I am sure that have discovered Pinterest.  Pinterest is a website that allows a person to peruse the internet and when they find something they really like and don't want to forget where they found it, to PIN it to a virtual corkboard.  I have been on Pinterest for a few months now and I have filled up several boards with things that I think are fantastic.  The funny thing for me is I pin things to my little hearts content and really have yet to do anything with those ideas.  Until yesterday.  Yesterday I decided that I would do SOMETHING with just ONE of my pins.  I was in the baking mood so I chose to make something from my food board.

It is called Chunky Monkey Bread.  Oh what heaven it is!!  The recipe basically has you make a cinnamon roll recipe and then you chop up all that goodness up into chunks, you then transfer to a bread pan and bake.  The oh so good thing you do next with that bread is make French Toast the next morning.  Which is just what we did this morning.  It was delicious!!  I didn't get any pictures of that this morning because we were too busy eating it up.

I also tried a crock pot potato soup recipe for dinner tonight and it was delicious as well.  This Pinterest thing just might work out for me.

If you would like the recipe to try here is the link to the blog I found with the recipe.

http://www.somethingswanky.com/2011/05/diy-kneaders-french-toast-part-ii.html

{What season is it?}

 We are having some trouble telling what season we are in around these parts.  At the beginning of this week we were forcasted to get a few inches of snow last night but the storm shifted south and we didn't even see snow flurries.  Today it is sunny with mild temps so we were outside in the back yard.  The guys were throwing the ball around and the other kids were digging in the dirt (a favorite past time lately).  We aren't complaining of how nice it has been, we just were expecting a bit more snow during the winter!!  The kids are loving being outside more and it sure is helping with the cabin fever we are usually experience this time of year.  

{Big Girl}

 Well little Miss Lauryn has joined the ranks of the older kids in our house!!  She finally lost her first tooth.  She lost it while brushing her teeth right before bed.  It must have been just hanging by a thread and I am glad she didn't swallow it.  As you can imagine with how tiny our Lauryn is, her teeth are pretty much microscopic.  She was so excited for the tooth fairy to come (remember our tooth fairy isn't always prompt), but she said she knew it was Daddy and Mommy so she requested Daddy dress up in a tutu to make it more realistic!!  I am not sure why she thinks the tooth fairy is us, unless she realizes that the real tooth fairy would actually remember to come the night of, instead of days later!!  Poor girl, she has to put up with a cut rate tooth fairy.  Lucky for her Daddy was on duty this particular night and so she got her money on time.  It looks like she will be a toothless wonder since she pretty much has all of her front teeth loose right now, of course all in different stages.  She is pretty cute though!!  Yeah for you Lauryn, you are getting too big!!!

{Outside}

 We haven't had much of a winter this year.  I say it is good and bad.  Our kids sure have lamented the fact that we bought new snow gear this fall and have used it once.  The time we did get to use it, it was a pretty weak excuse for a snow storm.  But boy howdy is the mild winter good for me, especially on days where my youngest little one needs to be shipped outside.  In his defense it must so hard to be the youngest and only one at home during the day.  On this particular day, we had run some errands and grabbed a few fresh things at the store to hold us over until payday and the major grocery shopping trip.  We came home and I let Wyatt watch some quiet time so I could exercise in peace.  I thought that had worked until I came upstairs to make Wyman lunch.  A sandwich and strawberries were on the menu for that day, but oddly I couldn't find the new carton of strawberries that I had bought not two hours earlier.  I searched for the strawberries and called for Wyatt.  Wouldn't ya know it I found the carton of strawberries under the table and Wyatt was MIA!!  The little booger ate EVERY strawberry in the carton.  There was not ONE that had survived his raid.  When I found the culprit he of course played dumb and told me we needed more strawberries.  

Now if this was an isolated event, then maybe no big deal.  But this was the third time in two days I had found him under the table eating something that either wasn't his or that he wasn't suppose to be into at the time.  One was my Valentine's chocolate (3-4 chocolates were gone in seconds) and the other was Meysa's bag of Valentine's candy.   

 I guess I had had enough, so I strapped that boys' shoes on, threw him into his coat and put him out to play in the backyard.  He had his little dump truck and he found some sticks and he was happy and miraculously so was I.  The sun was out and it was such a nice, mild day.  I couldn't resist stepping out to spend some time with Wyatt too (after I cooled down about the strawberries of course).

 His favorite thing to do was to sit in his dump truck and have me push him across the deck.  Once he reached the end he would then push off the railing and sail back for me to do it all again.  He thought it was so much fun and it ended up being a nice change from the drudgery of my day too.  I hadn't taken my camera out in a while and it was fun to get to play a little too.

So thankful for this boy, and yet so thankful for nice days in order to ship him outside to save my sanity.  

{Lately}

Lately....

That is the word you use when you want to catch up on a few weeks of blogging.  This is what our family has been up to lately.

-The older kids are losing teeth like none other.  I am starting to worry if Ayden will have any teeth to chew with.  Lauryn also has her first loose tooth.  

-With all the extra work for the Tooth Fairy, you would think she would be better about remembering to come, but sadly no, she still forgets.  The kids are very patient with her...

-Ryan recently got fitted for some good running shoes and is burning up the treadmill, that is when he isn't racing around the hospital.  

-I just started my fifth week of P90x, and I am not dead yet.  Yippee!!

-Wyatt is finally happy to go to his new Sunbeam class and doesn't throw a fit when we pass by the nursery at church.  It is so hard to grow up.

-Lauryn is getting better at reading and is trying really hard to get her spelling perfect.

-Ayden won a multiplication match-up in his class and gets to compete on the whole school level next week.  He also got bumped up to Advanced band on the trumpet.  He is pretty excited about that one!!

-Meysa finally decided on what to spend her Christmas money on....an iPod shuffle.  We are now "serenaded" (I use that term loosely) on a daily basis.

-We got our taxes done the other night....oh it feels good to have that out of the way.

-I have been getting back into the swing of doing my family history.  Ryan got me a subscription to Ancestry, so I am trying to take full advantage and get my money's worth out of it!!  

-Playing the Game of Life on the iPad is pretty much the only way to do it now.  The kids love that app and want to play it all the time.  We also LOVE facetime with Grandparents and friends!!  

-On MLK day, we thought it would be fun to take the kids to the National Museum of Art, downtown.  Lauryn, especially, has been talking about doing some art work that she can hang up in a museum.  So we thought, heck we will show her some great art and she can see for herself what it takes to make it to the big leagues.  Ryan and I were all excited, and so were the kids, until we got there and then they got hungry and it got boring really fast.  Oh well, we tried.  I would love to go back sans kids and actually do an audio tour and take my own darn time perusing the artwork.  We did end up spending a few hours there and saw not even half of what there was to see.  I can't blame the kids, they did well for their age. These are only some of my favorite.

 The National Museum of Art is across the street from the sculpture garden.  There is a large fountain in the middle of the garden that in the winter they turn into an ice rink.  We had to go and check it out because this coming weekend we are going to get to come back and try it out with the youth in our ward.  We were checking out the times and also the prices.  We can't wait for Saturday!!

 Finally, we got some snow!!  A few days before we did, Ayden had watched the national news and saw that our previous place of residence had gotten a ton of snow and he was miffed.  Life just wasn't fair!!  So when they woke up to snow a few days later, he was somewhat happy.  I say only somewhat because it was only an inch of snow and it had a hard crust of ice on top.  Which made it hard to make snowmen and snow angels and you couldn't throw it at anyone or you got in trouble.  They are still waiting for the big kahunas of snowfalls out here.  Mom and Dad are just fine with the springlike weather that keeps hanging on around here.

Ayden is getting to be quite proficient in the kitchen.  This last Sunday he wanted to make a recipe he had found in the Friend (a church magazine for children 3-11).  He got all the ingredients out and I taught him about yeast and letting things rise.  He was pleased with how they turned out and apparently so were the other kids, because there wasn't any leftover.  Every now and then he even surprises us with making breakfast for everyone on Saturdays.  I am not talking cold cereal either.  He loves to make egg-in-the-holes and sausage.  I think he'll be a keeper!!

Anywho, that is what we have been up to lately.  Just your average, run-of-the-mill days!!  Everyone is happy and healthy!!