Double Dash Bash

Vincent is now one and Elizabeth is 2184 days old (ie: almost 6).
The party was so much fun. The cake was almost all eaten up, but there was no one who didn't get enough. I only have three pieces left, which is perfect. I don't need a whole cake sitting around here or it will all be eaten BY ME!

We had our party tonight with Andy's family and mine and our game night buddy, Nathan.
Here are some pictures I took. Maybe someone else got some better ones too, but I have a lot of them.
Vincent's train cake. I frosted it last night and Andy decorated it with some candy from the cupboard (lifesavers for the wheels, skittles for the second train, smarties for the first train to put Vincent's initials on there, airheads for the windows, pez for the second train....) I just baked one cake mix in two bread pans. I tossed some Heath chips in there too to add a little flavor.
This is Elizabeth's Pet Shop cake. She loved it. She took three tries to blow out the candles though.
Elizabeth (the party announcer) enjoying her ice cream cake before getting Kool-Aid for everyone and telling them that it was time for presents.
Vincent's eyes were closed in this picture of him eating cake, but I love his chubby little hands all covered in cake and frosting. He wasn't even dirty above his mouth!
Elizabeth made this cute surprised face after she opened each present. This one was from her cousin Colby and his family. My dad helped her with the presents while I took pictures and my mom recorded who and what for me. Andy's mom held Vincent.
Andy helped Vincent with his gifts. This one is AWESOME! It is from Andy's parent's and it is all magnetic, sings songs, tells numbers and colors, and stacks. Plus, it's a train, which we love. Just look at Andy's face. You'll see how much we love trains.
This is my sister's son, Jackson. He climbed up on the coffee table before they left and looked too cute to not take a picture.

My mom also put a few pictures up on her blog of the party kids.
The kids are thoroughly and officially spoiled. Tomorrow is more cake in the evening with Andy's nephew who will be six the day before Elizabeth and his sister who will be sixteen. Yea for CAKE!

This little boy had a birthday....

This one sitting here.
Vincent is one today.
Everyone give a cheer.

I don't know. Silly this morning.



Here's my sweet and SO happy little guy. He was been wonderful. He is starting to act like he understands things more. I can just say his name and he'll stop and look at me (at least for a second). He loves to cuddle lately and will put his chubby little arms around my neck. I love it! He is almost always happy. What a great kid! Seriously, ask anybody.


We are having our whole extended family over tonight for cake and ice cream for Vincent and Elizabeth (she turns 6 next Friday, so there's no need to have it two weeks in a row here.) We are so excited! Time for baths now.

My mom just posted a video of Vincent on her blog that has me singing "Band on the Run" to help Elizabeth in the background. Vincent loves to dance!

a quick one have we

Olivia is getting quicker and quicker.
Tonight at dinner, I was having a quiet little conversation with Andy and Elizabeth asked who we were talking about. Without skipping a beat, Olivia said the person's first and last name.
Then she started singing "Band on the Run". Andy plays in on Guitar Hero and we heard it on the radio today.
A few days ago while Elizabeth was at school, I took Olivia and Vincent to the store with me to get presents for their birthdays coming up and told Olivia not to tell the surprises. As soon as Elizabeth got in the car she told her exactly what it was. Thanks a lot! You can't trust her to keep a secret!
She is quick though!

NEW Exercise Program

All you have to do is rearrange your food storage boxes and move furniture and drawers around. Repeat. Again and again. For days. Then repeat again.
Just kidding.
I did move all of our food storage yesterday though. We have 39 boxes. We only started last January and we are the "specialists" in our ward, so we go every time and get two or three boxes. I put some under Olivia's bed (which is now Elizabeth's because Elizabeth kept knee-jumping on her bed and bumping the shelf) and then moved the rest to the other side of Vincent's room. I moved his dresser across his room too and moved around some totes that are in there. I set up our Valentine's decorations (not near as many as we do for Christmas, by the way.) with help from the girls and now they want to make Valentine's crafts.
Here are some of the pictures of the new and improved rooms:
Here is my favorite room. The living room. I just switched two things, but it looks better (to me at least). I know, it's not the very best or anything, but I like it.
Here's the view of the other side of the living room. It is so long and narrow that it's kind of like having two rooms except the front door is right in the middle and then the door to the kitchen is there and the hallway too. It's hard to set up.
Here's our family room/dining area. The door to the left of the TV goes into Andy's computer room and tool storage. The curtain covering the French doors behind the love seat and recliner goes out onto the patio.
Here's the girls' room. Olivia's on the left. Elizabeth's on the right. (Someone from church gave me the blanket on Elizabeth's bed when Vincent was born. There is pink and purple all over it and the back is purple and white stripes. Vincent didn't get to use that one!)
If you would like pillows with your child's name or another saying, you can order them from my mother-in-law on our website. I'm working on getting my stuff done to put up there too, but I'm too busy reorganizing our house, among other things.
Vincent's/computer/storage room from the door. The totes are displaying a few of his blankets.(OR concealed oh so nicely under the blankets).
Here's what is behind Vincent's door. The old baby seat and box underneath are going away soon. I bet the diapers and wipes won't last long either.
Kid toys all set up the way I like them. They are in the corner next to the door to the laundry/craft room.
This is in the family room. I set up the counter with some of the toys that Vincent can't have.

We are gearing up for Vincent's birthday party on Saturday (combined with Elizabeth's for family) and then getting ready for Elizabeth's party the next Saturday with a couple of friends that she has played with this year (there are so many kids her age that we like, but I just decided to invite the ones that we have actually gone to their house or they have come here....not just seen them at church, etc.) She wanted to invite boys this year too. She really wanted a Superhero party, but instead is doing a Pet Shop party. She has invited three boys and three girls. She is so excited. Now I get to make a Pet Shop cake. I found some pictures online that looked pretty cute, so I guess I'll see what I come up with.

My # 14 Nephew!

I gained another adorable nephew today. His name is Samuel Thomas Crowther. He was 8 pounds 6 ounces and only 19 inches long. He is chubby, already!

I met Andy there with the kids after he finished work in Oregon. He took Olivia and Vincent home when they got too wild there. Elizabeth stayed with me to wait for Sam to come back from the nursery where they were making sure his blood sugar was alright. While we waited, Colby and Elizabeth played cars and watched part of a movie on my brother's laptop.

In this picture, it looks like he is laughing. So cute!
He is such a cute and pretty baby!
Colby is going to be a great big brother.
Elizabeth with Sam, her 18th cousin.
My brother, Joe, holding his new little guy.

Recipe Blog

I started a new blog to put my recipes on. I just added the ones that were already on this blog, but I will add more as I make things.
Feel free to "follow" it and ask for recipes too!

Cake, so yummy

I love cake!
I especially love when I get to eat it on the birthday of a family member with ice cream. Tonight we went over to a nephew's birthday party. He was born two years ago. The cake his mom made was chocolate (the best kind) with sugar cone hair and licorice eyes and mouth. The character is "Brobie" from some cartoon my kids and I don't have the pleasure of watching. The kids all love to play and run around together. It's so nice to live close to most of our family and join in celebrations. We normally have cake every month and sometimes even more than that! Not good for diets, but very yummy!
Suzie with Archer getting ready for candles. She's so cute!
Brobie, I guess.
The big kids sitting on the stools at the counter waiting to "help" Archer blow his candles out. Behind the kids is Grandma Ellen and new Grandpa Paul.
Here's Andy "helping" the kids play nicely.


To burn some of that cake off, I rearranged my family room and went through toys. It's so hard to get rid of toys when my kids still love to play with everything, so I'm just trying to put some of them away for a little while and take out some of the little, tiny things that Vincent likes so much. I wish I could switch more things around, but the shape of the rooms makes it hard. The family room is combined with the dining room table and chairs and has six other doors off of it. It's hard to change it up much. The TV is permanent and so is the giant DVD shelf, so I turned the table and switched the couches.
Then, I rearranged the living room (a little). I really just switched one chair for a couch to (hopefully) make our tracks in a different stretch of carpet.
After I put Andy to bed, I made two pillows to join my new arrangement in the living room.
When I finished with those, Vincent woke up to hang out for a bit because he slept for four hours after we got home from the party.


Andy took a picture of Elizabeth on Sunday in her dress that I wore. You can't see much of the dress through the boxes and I forgot to take another, so I'll have to do that next time. The dress is one that I wore when I was little. My mom brought it over on Saturday night when she and my dad came to see us. She and Olivia kept themselves busy in the family room on Sunday morning with the boxes I emptied out sorting through their clothes Saturday night very late. (I had to find something and the clothes were all mixed up and I wanted to get rid of some that were stained, never fit my kids right, were already all shrunk up, or immodest. Finally, I purged them.) Anyway, the girls were making "parade floats" with the extra boxes. They got the tape out and everything and wanted paper too. We told them it was time to get ready, so they kind of forgot about that.

Working it out

My brother, Milton, wanted to watch our kids for us this week because we watched his last week, but we already had gone to the Temple for the month and gone out to eat already, so I told him that he could come and fix the space next to my dishwasher (the one he told me he would fix when we moved here almost three years ago.) He is a carpenter and is also (a little) busy with five kids and church callings, but anyway, so he came over and did his work! Yea!
The edge of the cupboard wasn't secured in, but the previous owner did leave the pieces. He built a base and attached a pieces of wood that he brought to the counter on top and then cut the board a little to fit into the other counter on our bar to make it SO much better. He brought all the tools he need too. THANKS!
Before he came over, I decided that today was THE day. The one to do my project that I bought stuff for with my birthday money. I bought fabric to recover my recliner in the living room. I have been too busy with other projects to do it, but I finished it today too!

Andy was working on his new CPU (Computer) case that he is making out of plexi-glass. That way the motor and the mother board will show. The picture is only half of the computer. It will be a double-decker. It's looking pretty good so far, we'll see what it looks like when he's done.
So, Elizabeth seeing all of us working (must have been a surprise to her to see three adults working and not playing games, and Andy didn't get hurt while using power tools) asked what we were doing. She played/bossed her cousins around while Milton was here fixing up the kitchen.

Photo Tag

This is Elizabeth at her first Christmas. She was so busy walking around the coffee table that day and trying to open presents.
Check out her bright hair, even her eyebrows are bright! No wonder I would get questions all the time!
One person actually asked me if it was her "real" hair. "Well, it's only 3 inches long, and so it's not extensions and I didn't dye my 2 year old's hair, so YEAH! It is."

Anyway here are the rules:

Go to your Picture Folder on your computer or wherever you store your pictures.
1. Pick the 6th Folder, then select the the 6th picture in that folder.
2. Post that picture on your blog and the story that goes along with the picture.
3. Tag 6 other people that you know or don’t know to do the same thing and leave a comment on their blog or an e-mail letting them know you chose them.

I tag Trish, Kari, Valaney, Cali, Laurie, and Jessie

Kids have it good now!

Andy wanted me to post this. He got it in a forward and cleaned it up. I'm not 30 yet, but I understand.
When I was a kid, adults used to bore me to tears with their tedious diatribes about how hard things were. When they were growing up; what with walking twenty-five miles to school every morning, barefoot, uphill both ways.
And I remember promising myself that when I grew up, there was no way I was going to lay a bunch of junk like that on kids about how hard I had it and how easy they've got it!
But now that... I'm over the ripe old age of thirty, I can't help but look around and notice the youth of today.
You've got it so easy! I mean, compared to my childhood, you live in a Utopia!
And I hate to say it, but you kids today you don't know how good you've got it!
I mean, when I was a kid we didn't have The Internet. If we wanted to know something, we had to go to the library and look it up ourselves, using the card catalogue!!
There was no email!! We had to actually write somebody a letter, with a pen!
Then you had to walk all the way across the street and put it in the mailbox and it would take like a week to get there!
Stamps were 10 cents!
Child Protective Services didn't care if our parents beat us.
As a matter of fact, the parents of all my friends also had permission to kick our butts!
No where was safe!
There were no MP3's or Napsters! You wanted to steal music, you had to hitchhike to the record store and shoplift it yourself!
Or you had to wait around all day to tape it off the radio and the DJ would usually talk over the beginning and mess it all up! There were no CD players!
We had tape decks in our car.
We'd play our favorite tape and "eject" it when it finished and the tape would come undone, cause that's how we rolled, dog?
We didn't have fancy crap like Call Waiting! If you were on the phone and somebody else called they got a busy signal, that's it!
And we didn't have fancy Caller ID either! When the phone rang, you had no idea who it was! It could be your school, your mom, your boss, your Bookie, your drug dealer, a collections agent, you just didn't know!!! You had to pick it up and take your chances, mister!
We didn't have any fancy Sony Playstation videogames with high-resolution 3-D graphics! We had the Atari 2600! With games like 'Space Invaders' and 'Asteroids'. Your guy was a little square! You actually had to use your imagination!! And there were no multiple levels or screens, it was just one screen forever! And you could never win. The game just kept getting harder and harder and faster and faster until you died! Just like LIFE!
You had to use a little book called a TV Guide to find out what was on! You were screwed when it came to channel surfing! You had to get off your butt and walk over to the TV to change the channel! There was no Cartoon Network either! You could only get cartoons on Saturday Morning. Do you hear what I'm saying!?! We had to wait ALL WEEK for cartoons, you spoiled little …
And we didn't have microwaves, if we wanted to heat something up we had to use the stove ... Imagine that!
That's exactly what I'm talking about! You kids today have got it too easy. You're spoiled. You guys wouldn't have lasted five minutes back in 1980 or before!

The over 30 Crowd

Getting to Know You....

My sister in law, Sara, made this getting to know you game.

Take how old you are (if you want to, if not, choose a number above 20) and name interesting facts about you that no one else knows (try to stay away from gross ones), so that others reading it can get to know you better.

NaDell Mary Crowther Ransom

age 26 1/2
1. My mom made up my first name by combining her mom's name (NaOla) and her own middle name (Adell).
2. I dated at 12. (Well, I had a "going out boyfriend at 11, and went to dinner with a boy and his family at 13. I had three other boyfriends between there, but they were all just holding hands, if that, boyfriends. Mostly, we talked and walked on the playground and wrote silly notes.)
3. I talk to the TV during commercials or the news.
4. I still send a Christmas card to my second grade teacher every year.
5. Growing up, I lived across the street from my Kindergarten teacher and was so proud of myself the day I learned how to draw stars that I took a page of my beautiful stars over to her house.
6. My red-headed best friend and I talked so much in Kindergarten, that they told us we would never be in the same class again. =(
7. We moved to a new town the day I started fifth grade. I had only been there once and that was just at church. My mom dropped me off at school and I was supposed to walk home. I did, but had NO idea where I was going. I wandered around town (it was a little place) for what seemed like forever and then I finally returned to the school. I told the secretary my address (I did know that) and name and she said she didn't know where that road was. Finally, the principal took me home a LONG (to a 10 year old) time after school was out. So embarrassing. My family makes fun of me because my little brother made it home and I didn't, but he had at least been there before!
8. I HAVE to finish cross-stitch projects once I start them. I hate taking breaks from one thing to switch to another because I'm short on time.
9. I change into pajamas as soon as I'm sure I'm home for the night and that no one will come over. I love pajamas!
10. I don't like seafood. NONE.
11. I do like almost every other normal (not caviar, escargot, etc) food, though.-Actually I haven't tried those.
12. I am working my way up the freecell numbers. I didn't like to do them randomly because it always felt like I was doing the same thing. I'm up to 3869. I have only written down about 15 to go back to eventually.
13. If you spell check, my name always comes up spelled wrong. The options are usually "noodles"and "needles", but I guess in blogger it just comes up with silly nonsensical words instead.
14. I "talk" to my friend from HS who came here as an exchange student from Japan still. I don't really talk to her, but email and send packages and letters.
15. I have every regular colors (not all the metallic and cotton ones) of cross stitch DMC floss.
16. I have a stack of books to read, but I also have a list of cross-stitches to make, so I can't take a break to read unless there's a deadline. I'm almost done with "The Hobbit" for our church book group!
17. I used to sing the song "right to sleep" instead of "righteously" in the Book of Mormon Stories song from Primary at church.
18. The first night after my babies were born, I had to send them to the nurses so I could rest after my cesarean sections.
19. I was in Sunshine Generation (a singing and choreographed dancing kid group).
20. When I was little (before 9) I would stay after with my dad at the church while he had extra meetings and sneak (really, steal) snacks from the nursery cupboard. (I know, awful!)
21. I cut my little sister's and little brother's hair when I was ?7? (old enough to know better) and didn't admit it for years, even when asked repeatedly.
22. I hate cleaning the bathtub, which often makes cleaning it worse.
23. I can't go to bed with toys out or pillows not straightened, unless I'm totally exhausted and then I do it in the morning.
24. I actually forgot how old I was and had to go up to the top to make it 26 instead of 27. I'm aging myself too quickly!
25. When I got married, I had never been in an airplane.
26. When I got married, I had only been in four states. Now, I have been in twelve.
1/2. The smell I hate most in my new poll on the side is....

TAG=:=:=:=:=:=:=YOU!
Next morning-Sorry, mine kind of turned into a confession. Must have been late. Oh, I thought of another one, I can't close one eye when I take pictures. I can't wink.

Elizabeth's Ballet Fun

Elizabeth had ballet today and since I took pictures of Olivia yesterday, I had to remember to take Elizabeth's picture today. I haven't taken many pictures of them at ballet since it started. These pictures are a little fuzzy because I'm behind the glass, but they were having so much fun today in class, I couldn't resist. I took tons of pictures and then I asked the other parents if they wanted me to email the pictures to them, so I did that a lot this afternoon. Having each others email addresses works well for the recital in June too so we can swap pictures.
Elizabeth came out in Olivia's Christmas tutu and didn't really ask to wear it, so I had to convince Olivia that she likes it when Elizabeth shares with her......She figured out that she does like to play with Elizabeth and Elizabeth's toys enough to share the tutu. I was glad. Either way, I was worried about having a crying kid. I was a little surprised that I didn't.
They do tap dancing before Ballet lessons in the same class. She loves it. Today they played "Red light, green light" too, so she loved it even more than normal.
I love the back of this tutu. The bow is so great.
I got a picture of all of them pointing at the same time (a feat for 5-6 year olds!)
Do you think she saw me? She's so cute!

Chicken Pot Pie

It really is better than these pictures make it look, I promise. (Mine has a few more "spices" from the bottom of the pot when I left it on medium heat too long, but it still tasted very good.)
Chicken Pot Pie
My sister-in-law made Chicken Pot Pie for my brother's birthday dinner this week and I've been thinking about it since then. It is just SO yummy!
Ingredients:
2 Large Chicken Breasts
2 cups Water
1 teaspoon Parsley
2 teaspoons Dry Chopped Onion (or 1/2 cup regular onion)
1 teaspoon Oregano
1/4 teaspoon Pepper
1 teaspoon Garlic (or Garlic Salt-either way)
1 Family size Cream of Chicken Soup
1 cup Milk
2-3 cups Sliced Baby Carrots
5 Medium Diced Potatoes
1/2 cup Frozen Peas
1 can Cream Corn (I was out of the Regular kind, but it still tastes really good in it.)
Instructions:
Defrost Chicken if needed. Cut up chicken into small chunks. Put chicken in large pot. Dump water and spices on top. Let cook on Medium for 15 minutes. Add Cream of Chicken Soup and Milk and stir. Add in carrots, potatoes, peas, and corn. Stir and let heat until it is boiling. Turn heat down to low and let it simmer until the crust is made or longer to help it thicken.

Crust my Mom uses that is SO good:
Celery Seed Pastry Crust for Chicken Pot Pie
Ingredients:
2/3 cup + 2 Tablespoons Shortening
2 cups Flour
2 teaspoons Celery Seed (find this in the spice aisle or Poppy Seeds, Fennel might work too)
1 teaspoon Salt
4-5 Tablespoons Water
Instructions:
Cut shortening into flour, celery seeds, and salt (use a fork or a rubber spatula if you don't have a pastry cutter) until particles are the size of small peas.
Sprinkle in water 1 Tablespoon at a time, tossing with fork until flour is moistened and pastry almost cleans the side of the bowl (I only needed 4 Tablespoons). Add in 1-2 Tablespoons extra, if needed.
Gather pastry in a ball and divide into four parts. (top and bottom crust of two pies). Roll out each piece separately on a lightly floured surface.

Place into greased pie pan and then fill with Chicken soup (there will be some left over probably. Good for a lunch or to freeze for another day or if you wanted to, you could make more crust and make some more pies). Add top crust and use a knife to make several holes in the top.
When cooking, use a cookie sheet underneath to catch any possible spills (just in case).
Bake at 350 degrees for 30 minutes.
Then, let it sit for five minutes to thicken (if you can stand it) and then enjoy with cheddar cheese on top. YUM!
Let me know if you try it out.

Guess What?

Elizabeth really does want you to guess what she is in this picture.
I told her what I wrote and she keeps asking if anyone has played the game yet.
I'll repost the picture too.

Ballet Dress up

This morning, we went to ballet and we were on time! I usually forget that I need to allow time to do their hair up in a bun and take too long that way. The teacher was a little late though because of car trouble, so I got out my camera and took some pictures of Olivia. Here she is with her dress up crown and necklace, along with the best tutu from Grandma Shirley (and she has her best bun yet. Check it out!)

Clean up everybody, everywhere....

I know, that song is from Barney which is not allowed in our house, but they sing it in nursery and I don't mind the song and I didn't even know it came from Barney until a few years ago.
On Monday, since there was no school, that's what we did. We cleaned. A lot! It all started when Vincent woke up just as my head hit the pillow (of course)....
I went out to the kitchen and decided to get a head start on my to-do list for Monday morning. There was a lot on it, so I started with the dishes. I loaded the rest of the dishwasher and then found that I needed to clean the pans from cookies and then cleaned the stovetop. Then, I cleaned under the toaster, mixer, and drawer set on my counter before dumping out crumbs in the toaster and cleaning UNDER the stove and UNDER the fridge. I was a little surprised by the smaller than expected amount of dust and crumbs and arrant noodles underneath. =) I even found the piece that's been missing from our Cootie set, the bow that the girls love to play with! So, I cleaned all over and really only 20 minutes of it was while Vincent was awake.
Then, I got up mid-morning, and put the girls to work. We called it a pajama day too and they were all excited. Here's some pictures of them working hard for the money, so hard for you, honey.
Elizabeth really likes to vacuum and she vacuumed the living room for me. (Notice her fuzzy head?)Olivia didn't want to vacuum very bad, but did the family room anyway. She already had her dress up on on top of her pajamas though.
Vincent read books and made more mess while we cleaned up. He likes to follow us around and get in the way of the vacuum too.

The girls brought me the laundry baskets to sort and then I cleaned the floor in the kitchen, the bathroom floor, sink, toilet, and shower. Wow. Now, I'm tired again.

Peeve of Mine

I have a pet peeve lately (since I'm constantly checking blogs).
It is when wives complain about their husbands on their blogs.
I don't get why it needs to be OUT THERE. Really?
Does everyone need to know that your husband didn't clean up the house while he watched your 6 kids while you went to 5 different stores? Are you really complaining about that? He takes care of you by working, is able to help at home, but doesn't do it just exactly the way you want (which usually doesn't happen anyway since we are all so picky about things most guys don't care about), so you complain to the WORLD that your life is terrible.
If your husband does the dishes, but doesn't put them all away in the order that you do, well, you're on your own.
You know, I'd understand if you said that your husband is unemployed and forces you to work 80 hour weeks or something. I think I might complain about that too (but I wouldn't have the time).
I'd understand if you could never leave your house without all of your children because your husband can't be bothered with any children around.
Maybe I'd even understand the complaining if, well, fill in the blank.
You each have your own challenges to deal with. I do understand that.
But seriously, why mess up this great sounding board and community of blogging to complain and moan about your husband. At least you have one! Be happy for a change. It works. Really, it does!
I'll still read the complaining posts about any of your husbands, but don't expect me to complain about mine. He's not perfect, of course, but I don't look for all the negative things. I'm like Pollyanna. I play the "glad game". And I'll be happy that I'm not married to you.
Does the complaining bug anyone else? Or is it just me?
(Andy says: If NaDell starts doing her hair like this, I'm going to be worried.)

Vincent Standing Up

I finally got some good pictures of him smiling and showing off his cute dimple too. Look closely at the cheek on your left.
Vincent now stands up next to furniture. He is 11 1/2 months. He didn't even sit up until 8 1/2 months, and didn't crawl until 10 1/2 months,so that's pretty good, I guess.
Olivia walked at 11 months. Elizabeth walked at 13 months and stood up next to furniture at 10 months. Every kid is different.
I don't know why I baby talk in every video. I think I'm just trying to talk quiet. I hate baby talk. Sorry.

Chocolate Microwave Mug Cakes

One of my friends posted this on her private blog, so I'm going to post it here for all of you. Her family did it for FHE and the kids really enjoyed it.
I just made it tonight after the kids went to bed for Andy and I to enjoy. It was yummy, but you might want to split one egg between two mugs.
It was cool to watch the cake rising over the top of the mug while it cooked in the microwave and then fall when the microwave stopped.

5-MINUTE MUG CAKE RECIPE
4 TBSP flour
4 TBSP sugar
2 TBSP baking cocoa (dry powder)
1 egg
3 TBSP milk
3 TBSP oil
3 TBSP chocolate chips
a small splash of vanilla

Instructions:
No need to spray or grease mug.
Add dry ingredients to mug, and mix well.
Add the egg and mix thoroughly
Pour in milk and oil, mix well.
Add chocolate chips and vanilla, mix again.
Put your mug in the microwave and cook for THREE minutes @ 1000 watts. The cake will rise over the top of the mug, don't be alarmed! Dump out on plate if desired after cooking (it will almost split in half, so you could share it with another person if you wanted). We sprinkled ours with powdered sugar.

Gotta Keep on Keepin' on

I know, I know, I post almost every day. Now I just have to keep it up, right? The kids are all asleep, finally. The girls used to be better at going to bed, but lately are awful. Everything is a battle. They are always needing to go to the bathroom, get drinks, need a Tum, etc. The usual. They already have a piece of bread and a drink of milk during Scriptures and stories, so they shouldn't be hungry. I understand going to the bathroom and they are supposed to get a drink after brushing their teeth! Sheesh. It's such a hassle lately. (I don't think it helps that tonight we started a little later than normal, but really!) They even played a ton today. They had our neighbor boy over and they even ran around outside and then a few hours later they had four boy cousins come and play while their little sister slept and their parents went out together. I just don't know what the deal is.
I also decided that I need to restart the quarter allowance for behavior chart I made up months ago. The penny jars stopped working. I made a chart to put on the wall that has each kid's name and the quarters they can earn. Elizabeth-5, Olivia-3, and Vincent-1 (I mostly just put him on there to rub it in to the girls that he will earn his every time.) They were so bad at going to bed tonight though, that I already crossed one each off of the girls' rows. Here's a picture:
Last time, I would just cross one way on Olivia's each time she was naughty, so she had 6 chances and Elizabeth had three. I'll probably do that again. One quarter from each week has to go in their piggy banks. On Friday, we raided the piggy banks to pick out books from the Scholastic Book Order. Olivia had $3 and change, Elizabeth had $5 and change, and I had $11 and change. I bought books for Vincent and the girls, though.

I just was loading on the picture of the chart onto the computer and found this one that Andy must have taken this morning of Vincent playing with Star Wars McDonald's toys. I do love surprise pictures on the camera though. As long as they're not awful ones of me....
Is someone brainwashing my baby? Is anyone brainwashing yours? (Andy says: Vincent will hear this in the future, when the need arises, "put that Barbie down! Go build something with your Legos, and it better have guns on it!")

Red Robin

Tonight we did our once monthly eating-out (New Year Goals). We went to Red Robin because we had a gift card ($20 prize from last years PLCs Plus, non-gambling, March Madness contest. It's the flagship sports predicting challenge of the year and Andy won it the last two years. With a little luck he'll get an unprecedented three-peat this March. This is even though he doesn't care much about sports.) and a coupon for a free kid's meal. It ended up being just a few dollars more than fast food with those combos. I love using coupons! Now we just have to keep ourselves from eating out again until the middle of February. We did make it 16 days into January though. Here's some pictures I took while we were there for fun. All day Olivia was calling Red Robin "Red Robin Hood". She's so funny. I think she'd be good at some of those combo Jeopardy and Wheel of Fortune answers.NaDell says: "I love Red Robin's Raspberry Limeade. It is so YUMMY! Where's my little umbrella?"
Vincent says: "Give me some &$*% food, lady!" Don't believe me? He's flipping the bird in the other picture NaDell took of him. He ate french fries, fruit puffs, and some of my bun. He also dropped his little toy cars on the ground a (surprisingly) few times.Olivia and Elizabeth were both very into the color page until their pop came. They were both pretty excited about that, we usually cheap out and get them 'water-pop'. They both ate all their food and Elizabeth was still hungry! She is always so hungry. She must be getting even taller, either that or the poor little weasel has a tapeworm.