So Many Projects So Little Time...

I LOVE Projects! I just go a bit crazy without having something to work on. At any given time it seems like I have about 10 projects that I'm in the middle of; Robert took the liberty of counting all my "unfinished" projects for me this weekend. But for the record I do finish many of them, here are a few I have finished lately:

* 3 new Ties for Michael and James to wear to Church
* Cute pink shoes for Katelyn
* A new apron for the kids to wear
* 3 Wooden pictures to celebrate a new baby in the Bond/Phillips family...They will look so cute on a light lime green wall don't you think? :)
* And lastly a precious little purple satin dress for Katelyn; the little girl who hates clothes! (We dressed her today and she screamed for about 45 minutes while pulling at her clothes and throwing her self onto the floor!)






Ah, I love my projects! Perhaps soon I'll start my current dream project of painting our great room! *Sigh* But then again maybe I'll just work on something I've already started.

May Family Newsletter


June Family Newsletter

Ahhh...Free Stuff!

I just love Coupon $ense! I love the high that I get when I have tons of stuff and it rings up for nearly nothing! The greatest is when the cashier says, "I don't know how that happened but we owe you money!" Here's a picture of a trip to Bashas, I spent around $1.60 on EVERYTHING and saved about $70!



Here is a recent trip to CVS I paid about $5 for all of it with a savings of $142! And to think that I used to wonder why anyone ever shopped at Walgreens or CVS!



Is anyone else excited about back to school shopping or is it just me? I love the cheap and free deals on school supplies! $.01 packs of pencils, $.59 for colored pencils, $.39 for mechanical pencils, $.50 for markers, free pens, glue, paper, folders...I just get so excited! I hope you find some good deals too and have fun shopping!!

Good (junk) Food!

Mmmmm...Brownies covered in melted marshmallows then topped with a fudge like chocolate frosting! They are so good, you should try them! If you like to freeze stuff to enjoy later like I do these freeze really well.

Brownies:
3/4 C. Butter
1 1/2 C. Sugar
3 Eggs
1 tsp Vanilla
1 1/3 C. Flour (whole wheat works great!)
1/2 tsp Baking Powder
1/2 tsp Salt
3 Tbs Unsweetened Baking Cocoa
3-4 C. Mini Marshmallows

Preheat oven to 350. Lightly grease 9x13 pan. In a mixing bowl cream butter and sugar. Add eggs and vanilla beat until fluffy. In a separate bowl combine flour, baking powder, salt and cocoa. Add flour mixture to creamed mixture. Spread in pan. Cook for about 18 minutes. (It never really seems to be done according to the "toothpick test" until they are way too done.) Sprinkle with marshmallows and return to oven for 2-3 minutes. Spread melted marshmallows around with a knife.

Frosting:
1/4 C. Butter
6 Tbs Milk
1 1/4 C. Sugar
1/2 C. Mini marshmallows
1/2 C. Chocolate Chips

Combine butter, milk and sugar in a pan over medium heat. Stir until it boils, boil for one minute. Remove from heat add marshmallows and chocolate. Quickly stir and spread onto brownies. (Allow brownies and marshmallows to cool before topping with frosting or you'll have a marbled topping instead of layered one.)

Enjoy!

Happy Birthday Michael

Michael is now 4 years old!! Michael is such a joy to have! We love him so much and he helps make each day an adventure. We love you Michael!
The following slide show is of Michael growing up!

Go Katelyn, Go!

It's hard to believe but Katelyn is now just over 5 months old and on the move! She has her own style of getting from place to place with a lot of rolling and some lunges but it's very effective. Check out these movies we took last week. (She had pants on but they were slowing her down and she was crawling out of them.) I love how she pops up onto her knees and then crawls and lunges. She rolls around to get around and rolls around and gets stuck too. You should see her now that she has had a week to practice; she is speeding right along with a more regular crawling style. She's growing too fast!

...I have a secret...

It is no secret that I love to be outside, I love my family, yet I love my alone time, I love music, I love our ward (the sisters are awesome) and my favorite time of the day is before the sun rises when the first signs of light come to the sky.

So, for a year or so I have been listening to the ladies of the Sossaman Ward talk about their marathons, triathlons, bike races etc. (Yes, we do have an active ward!) Every time they would start to talk about it and ask others around me if they were interested in joining them for the next race I always thought, "Please don't ask me, running is not my thing!" Don't get me wrong, I run a lot after my kids but that's different than a marathon! So after about a year of all the ladies talking about running I wondered if I even could run, I mean, really run not just sprint after a two-year-old. So I decided to start, just to see if I could and you know what I can! So my secret is this--that I love to run now! I don't know why it took me 26 1/2 years and three kids to figure this out but I do love to run! I love spending the time outdoors in the early morning hours (I get up between 4 and 5 AM usually), before it gets hot, to run a few miles and listen to my music while I get some time away from the kids and the house. (It combines so many of my favorite things!)

Now to those ladies in my ward...you know who you are...I don't think I am ready or even considering a marathon or triathlon but perhaps I'll see you out in the neighborhood in the early morning hours too! Thank you so much for inspiring me to see that I too can run and love it! And to those of you who think, "Running is not my thing!" perhaps it is and you just don't know it-you should give it a try!