I Love Braids

Ok - so braids are my new favorite thing. I LOVE braids.  They are a little boho, a little hippie, and totally my new favorite thing.  I braid my hair ALL the time lately.  Shan can attest - I am pretty sure I had some boho braids when we had lunch the other day.



How's that for a random post?

Vidoni how-down

Send your own ElfYourself eCards

Yummy Chicken Azteca!!!

Hey Shan - I have to say thanks SO MUCH for your yummy Chicken Azteca recipe. I was telling my mom about it and she wanted to make it for our Sunday dinner cuz she's always running out of ideas of what to make. So before I even got a chance to try it myself, my mom made it on Sunday. And oh my gosh!!!! It was SO YUMMY!! EVERYONE was saying how good it was and we ate SO MUCH of it!!!

So thanks Shan!!

And I'm totally all for doing "What's for Dinner Wednesdays". I ALWAYS need new recipes!!!!

Snif, Snif...

Friday already?!

Do you remember our super fun-filled and extremely exciting "senior sluff" day? I do, it was LAME! Aspen Grove? Truly sad...I had fun though, thank goodness for good friends.

Hot Dog it's Friday!

Britt this post is for you! Do you remember this?

{flashback!}

It's a little bit of a different flashback.  Its just me in the pic, but I think you girls will flashback too!



Ignore the wrong date on my mom's camera! This is NOT 1987!! haha But look at that sweet sign my mom made me!! Isn't that so cute?! I think she traced my rifle to make the border.

And do you remember those scrub pants?!?!! Didn't we get them at the Army Surplus place? And remember those little matchstick rifles we learned on! I'm so glad we beefed it up and moved to the big guns.

Anyway - just thought you might get a kick out of this picture I found!! Have an awesome Friday girls. I love you!

What's for dinner?

Do you find yourself asking this question as much as I do. I'm always asking (or being asked) what's for dinner? So I thought it would be fun for us to share some yummy recipes. This recipe is super easy and super yummy. And it's made in the crockpot!

Chicken Azteca

1 15oz can black beans, drained
2 cups frozen corn kernels
1 garlic clove minced
½ tsp ground cumin
1 cup chucky salsa, divided
3 skinless, boneless chicken breasts
1 8oz pkg cream cheese
Cooked rice
Shredded cheddar cheese


1. Combine beans, corn, garlic, cumin and half of salsa in slow cooker
2. Arrange chicken breast on top and then pour remaining salsa on top of chicken
3. Cover, cook on high 2-3 hours or on low for 4-6 hours
4. Remove chicken and cut into bite-sized pieces then return to cooker
5. Stir in cream cheese
6. Cook on high until cream cheese melts
7. Spoon chicken and sauce over cooked rice
8. Top with shredded cheese

Yield: 4-6 servings

Bad Day

So today has been nothing but BAD! It all started last night when Ethan woke up at 1am crying and never really went back to sleep. We got up late which means we were rushing out the door to church. We had to sit in the very back on the hard, noisy, metal chairs. Ethan missed his morning nap and was all over the place at church. He didn't want to be held & he didn't want to play with any of the toys I brought. He just wanted to walk around do his own thing. Jared finally gave in and took him out into the hall so he could walk around. After sacrament we have sharing time and that is a big joke! The kids always want to play with him instead of listening. Ethan of course wants to walk all around the room and get into everyone bags and what ever else he can find. So either Jared or I have to entertain him while the other one is trying to get seven 5 year olds to stop talking and touching their neighbor and listen to the speaker. Then it was on to class. I taught about forgiveness but the kids weren't really interested in the lesson. Instead they kept talking to their neighbors and the girls kept trying to hold Ethan. One little girl named Hannah asked to go to the bathroom and right after she said that 2 more said they had to go and one wanted to get a drink. I told everyone no potty brakes or drink brakes until after the lesson. Unfortunately Hannah really had to go to the bathroom and as she got up to help me with the lesson she had an accident. I felt sooo bad. I rushed her downstairs to find her mother and mortified I had to tell her mother that she had an accident and that it was all my fault. I was to frustrated to let her and all of the other kids go that the bathroom. On top of that there was this RUDE lady sitting in the hall with her daughter (who is in my class but refused to come to class) giving me the evil eye. Then when I get back to class the kids are coloring their activity and Jared has lost all patience with them so he was being kind of short with them and me. Then he has the nerve to tell me that when Hannah asks to use the bathroom she needs to go then. I was so mad! Why didn't you say that in the first place! I then used one of Ethan's diapers to clean up Hannah's pee, finished helping the kids make their handouts and then we left. Ethan is finally down for a nap and I feel like taking one too. Sometimes it's so hard to be a mom and a primary teacher.

Confession of a Disgusting Discovery

I am not sure how to begin this post other than to say our oven has been stinking lately. Not all the time, just when I needed it to be at 350 or higher. (so pretty much anytime I use the oven!) We have only lived here for a few months and I didn't remember it having a problem from the get go, so I was really confused. It smelled sort of like it does when you auto clean an oven & I figured there must have been some "drippings" of a past dinner frying to a frenzy every time I fired up the ol'girl. I sort of forgot about it as I avoided making meals that required cooking. (Yes, you assume correctly when you think to yourself how lazy that is of me to avoid cleaning it rather than just dealing with it!) And lets be truly honest now-I don't ever do a total oven overhaul unless we are moving out. Cleaning ovens is NO FUN so who wants to do that on a regular basis? NOT ME!

Anyway, I was cleaning the kitchen tonight and noticed that the little round drip trays on the stove top were looking pretty nasty! I decided to pull them out and give them a good scrub & for some reason doing that sent me into oven cleaning overdrive! I figured that cleaning them off would resolve the before mentioned nasty aroma & thought I would quickly wipe out the few small pieces of debris inside that I had noticed the last time I used the oven.

When I crouched down to reach under the racks I was almost startled when I looked into the back of the oven and saw this....EeeeWwwwwwwwGROSS!! The first thought that came to my mind was, "RAT!" Then I came to my senses and realized what it really was, "Sick-a charred to death corn dog!" I had to break it open and see the inside (cause I am gross) & it snapped into two pieces like a piece of chalk!I don't' think that puppy could have gotten much more black! Matt and I were surprised it hadn't caught on fire! It has been in there for a LONG time & what is even more funny is the fact that the last time I made corn dogs one was missing. I pulled the tray out of the oven and sat it down to cool. When I came back to bring them to the table there were only 5, but I knew I had put 6 in. I thought maybe Matt had eaten one while they were cooling off, so I asked him and he denied taking one. I figured he was joking and had eaten it. I didn't even think to look inside the oven!

If you are wondering how I never saw it before go look in your oven at the angle you stand when putting something in or taking it out. It looks something like this:

Well, from now on I am crouching down and looking all the way to the back after I have taken the food out! (I am guessing maybe you will too!) Anyone in the mood for a corn dog?

I don't care!

I don't care how big of a nerd this makes me, I LOVE cheesy teeny-bopper movies. The ones that weren't even that cool to love even when I WAS a teeny-bopper.  I'm not claiming a love for any and all of this genre of flick, but the certain ones I loved in high school - well - I still love them.

In my kitchen I have a little TV/VCR combo (same one I've had since high school in fact).  There's no cable in the kitchen, so I keep a few of my favorite old tapes in a cupboard and I play them while I'm either cooking or cleaning or whatever. So, essentially I watch these old faves in chunks spaced throughout several days.

I just finished watching "She's All That" for the first time in several years.

And while I can totally see how cheesy and lame it is (I'm not blinded by my love), I do still LOVE IT. Remember how much I used to love FPJ?

I think I might always love any movie he's ever in because of my high school crush on him. Not matter how much of an over-actor he is.

Color Guard Flashback Friday

Hey guys!  I'm getting a late start to the Flashback Friday!  Sorry.  It's been a crazy day.  I found a couple photos of us bawlin' like babies after our last performance of our Vivaldi show.


Weren't those costumes hideous?  Oh brother.  The show rocked.

Ok - well - I'll talk to you chickies later!  Have a great weekend.  Love you both.

We've all been there-Haven't we?

Tough Love VS. Spanking - Good Argument

I’ve tried this and found it to be very effective..... Age makes no difference either. 8 or 24. years old. They really listen after this!
Most of the American populace thinks it improper to spank children,so I have tried other methods to control my kids when they have one of 'those moments.' One that I found effective is for me to just take the child for a car ride and talk.

Some say it's the vibration from the car, others say it's the time away from any distractions such as TV, Video Games, Computer, IPod, etc.

Either way, my kids usually calm down and stop misbehaving after our car ride together. Eye to eye contact helps a lot too.

I've included a photo below of one of my sessions with my son, in case you would like to use the technique.

This works with grandchildren, nieces, and nephews as well.

Our busy weekend!

Well I was going to post this picture for flashback Friday but I never had a chance to. We were so busy with Jared's family being in town and it being Halloween and Ethan's b-day party.

I also wanted to give you a sneak peak at my cute little golfer and birthday boy. Eventually I'm going to post our Halloween pics and b-day pics on my blog but I thought I'd share them with you first.

feeling a tiny bit better

I don't want to jinx anything, but last night I slept through the entire night without having to get up and blow my nose or anything!  Good old NyQuil!  haha  But yeah - slowly - VERY slowly - I think I'm finally getting better.  I hope I hope I hope.  It's been three weeks now since I've been sick and I'm REALLY tired of it

Scotty is about to hit his one year mark on his mission, can you believe it?  He's doing SO WELL too.  He's finally having some success and baptisms (he's only had 1 before now, in a whole year!!).

And guess what else - this is really going to freak you out.  Cameron is 16 now, and he's got a GIRLFRIEND!!!  It's a band romance!  She's a flute and he's a trumpet.  They really like each other and she seems really sweet and nice.  I met her at our Halloween party this week.  My mom says they kiss and say I love you and everything!  Can you believe it?  My BABY BROTHER!!?!?!  Crazy.  This is him and Megan dressed up as skaters at the Halloween party.

They were trying to look tough, so its not a great picture of them really, but yeah. There they are.  His hair isn't really green.  That was for the costume.

Crazy huh?

Alright - talk to you girls later!!

xoxo,
Britt

Crayons in the Microwave

Matt and I were sitting on the couch the other night watching a DVR'd episode of Road Rules/Real World The Island challenge & the girls had been playing nicely for about the first half of the show. The episode we were watching happened to be the final one & we were both so excited to see who was going to win! I had the thought that we should probably check on the girls since they were playing a little too quietly. I was nursing Grayden so I asked Matt if he would go check on them & he gave me that look of, "sure-volunteer me to get out of my comfy spot on the couch!" He went anyway & I am SO GLAD that I asked him to because he found our sweet innocent little girls with a big pile of CRAYONS in the microwave-door shut-timer set-ready to push START! Can you imagine what a horrendous mess that would have been to try and clean up!!! OH MY WORD!!! I am so glad I was inspired! hahaha!! We dodged a bullet that time. It's too bad that most often quiet means trouble.

Britt's Tag

1. What did you eat for dinner last night? Taco Soup I made.  mmmm . . . 
2. What did you do last night? Cuddled up on the couch, handed out candy to trick or treaters, and then watched "Disturbia" with Josh.  Super scary!!!
3. What should you be doing instead of blogging? Probably lying in bed resting.
4. What is your favorite in the line to check-out treat? Gummy bears and magazines!
5. What is the last book you read? Umm . . . I think Three Weeks with My brother by Nicholas Sparks.  EXCELLENT BOOK!
6. What book do you want to read? Breaking Dawn.  I still haven't read it, even though I bought it the day it came out.  I don't know why.
7. When was the last time you shaved your legs? Thursday!  You girls are gross!!!  What do you do on Sundays?  I have to at least shave for church!!
8. If you could choose any movie to watch right this second what would it be?  Pride & Prejudice.  The BBC mini-series one.  
9. Which is your favorite Temple?  Salt Lake
10. What are you doing for Halloween?  Well - I told you already what we did.  Nothing too exciting but that's cuz I'm sick.  Thursday night we had a big Leavitt/Rodee Halloween Party at our house.  It was very fun.
11. What animal do think you most resemble? and why?  I have no idea!!  But I took Shan's quiz and it says I'm a caterpillar too!! haha
12. What color is your toothbrush & is it hard, soft or medium? Pink of course, medium
13. Have you ever met anyone famous? Yeah lots of people through costume design.  My favorite famous person - probably Steve Carrell. 
14. What kind of chap stick do you like? Burt's Bees
15. What time do you usually wake up on Saturdays? My sleep-in day.  Usually 10 am!
16. Do you know any good "Book Club" books? Yeah - I we read "The Secret Life of Bees" for book club last year and I LOVED it.  The movie is good too.
18. What is your favorite Disney movie? Do you have it? Little Mermaid.  Yes, I own it.
19. Do you wear slippers, socks, or go barefoot around the house?  Sometimes slippers, a lot of time bare feet.  NEVER socks.

20. Are you dressing up for Halloween & as what? Heck yes I did!  Josh and I were pirates and we ROCKED it, sick or not.  I can't pass up a chance to dress up.

Thanks for the fun tag!  Love you girls.