The beauty of a wild animal

Sammy was sunning himself on the trampoline yesterday afternoon. When I walked outside to get a picture of him, he decided not to cooperate. He did however give me the most beautiful action shot of his leap off the trampoline.



Oh, the grace & beauty:

The kids thought we had a small earthquake.

Sundaes on a Sunday

An Evening at the Theater.

Last Wednesday evening, we all went to see this:

It was really cute. It amazes me how much Emma & Jacob love to go to the theater. They sit through EVERYTHING! Sophie, on the other hand, makes it about 30 minutes, then she wants to know when intermission will be so she can get some candy.

After the show, like always, you get to meet the cast. Emma was really excited to take her picture with "Chad" and "Natalie", the lead characters.

Up next for Hale Center Theater is "As You Like It." I guess we'll be leaving Sophie home for that one.

Emma knows how to party!

For Emma's 9th birthday, she chose to have a "chocolate" party. We made really cute invitations out of chocolate bars, she invited TONS of friends, but most importantly, the party was centered around this:





Yes, I purchased a chocolate fountain. I wasn't sure what to expect. I'd heard mixed reviews about them, but make no mistake, it was a HUGE hit with the 8-9 year old crowd.

We had strawberries, bananas, raspberries, potato chips, pretzels, marshmallows, angel food cake, pound cake and just about anything else you can think of. Each girl got to fill a plate up, grab a long skewer and go to town!

After four hours with 12 girls ... let's just say the poor fountain never had a chance...

After all that chocolate, no one was really in the mood for cake, but we still had to go through the ritual of course:

They danced, they ate, they piled on a million pillows in the living room and watched "Aquamarine", they had a fabulous time. Every one of Emma's friends is just terrific.

Happy Birthday Emma!

What a jerk...

I know, I know.... The Bachelor is "throw away" TV. It's dumb and cheesy and all that, but I was addicted to it this season. This year's bachelor topped them all this week by dumping the girl he proposed to, Melissa, in front of America. Then, not 5 minutes later, he asks for Molly (his original dumpee) to give him another chance!! What??? Then they actually start kissing on the couch!! Talk about pouring salt into Melissa's wounds!!! What a jerk.

This should have been handled off camera. It was brutal to watch and I am now boycotting any future Bachelor shows.

As for Melissa, she can do much better. She's better off in the long run. As for Molly? She deserves whatever she gets. Have some pride Molly.

Simplify Supper

I saw a cooking segment on Good Things Utah last week that looked pretty good. It was from a website called Simplify Supper. I now LOVE this website. It's just what I needed to help me put some variety into my normal menus. Plus, all of the recipes seem fairly basic. The whole idea behind Simplify Supper is that they feel that it is important for families to eat together. They want to make shopping for, and making dinner a little easier to encourage families to sit down and eat together more often.

The best feature of this sight is that you can "add" several recipes to your list, and they will automatically generate the shopping list for the recipes for you! And the site is free!

Check it out today!

Demon Cat

Last night I heard quite a commotion in the kitchen after the kids had gone to bed. Upon investigating, I found this horrific sight....

Demon Cat!!