Happy Heart Day to You!

Happy Heart Day! This is what Jessica and I did last night. These little chocolate heart cookies turned out so cute. We made what seemed like hundreds of them. Jess put them in little cellophane bags to give to her friends today.




I think I eat my way from one holiday to the next. There is always another cute little treat to make....and eat.

Happy Birthday Matthew!

I'm really behind in posting some birthday pictures of Matthew! He turned 11 on January 12th. He had a really fun birthday. He got his first BB gun. Waaa hoo! This was against my wishes of course. But I decided to let boy stuff happen. Brock had everything to do with this gift. Matthew is so excited to go shoot it somewhere. So far he has shot the gun once in our backyard. Brock really needs to take him somewhere to shoot some cans.



Super yummy chocolate cake! Matthew's favorite.

Matthew is such a good-hearted kid. I love him to pieces.

I can't believe my boy will start middle school next year!

Breakfast Casserole Anyone?

Dear Bloggy Friends:

It is my turn to take breakfast to all of the youth seminary students. They get breakfast every Friday. It's a fun tradition for them. I'm wondering if any of you have a GREAT breakfast casserole recipe. Can any of you help me?

Blog to you soon,

Julie

Things that made me smile...

Last week was my best yet of the new year. Here is why I am smiling...

I no longer have a smokers cough! Yay! I am

finally getting better.

By Friday, I was actually singing in the kitchen.

This is something I have really missed!

Matthew participated in his last pinewood derby.

He and Brock worked so hard on his car.

Unfortunately, the car was too light

and it just wouldn't go very fast.

Matthew was a good sport.

No school on Friday!

It has been snowing in East Tennessee.

The kids were ecstatic and had a

great time sledding.

Church was cancelled on Sunday.

It was weird, but a nice break.

All of us prepared a talk or thought to share.

We had our own family service.

Friday was fun!

We rented "This is It"

Michael Jackson was such and incredible

musician and artist. I still have

a hard time realizing that he is gone.

It was a fun documentary.

Playing guitar hero and rock band

has been so fun!

My favorite rock band moment was

watching Benjamin play the guitar

and sing the back up to Mr. Roboto

"Secret, secret, I've got a secret."

It was so cute!

ok.......

enough smiling, I need to go

do some laundry!

Making Dough No More...

I love my bread maker. But not because I make bread in it. I use the dough cycle to make my rolls, bread dough, and most often, pizza dough. Well...a few months ago I noticed (couldn't help but notice) a horrible sound coming from my blessed dough maker. It was a mix of ball bearings and metal on metal sound when my dough was mixing. There was also a gross collection of dough underneath my bread maker pan. It looked like a little turd. I knew that there was a problem, but I ignored it. I was still able to make my dough.

A couple of weeks ago our family was around the table eating yummy homemade pizza. Benjamin was chewing and then trying to spit something out of his mouth. To my horror, he pulled out a metal part of sorts. I examined his slice of pizza and also found a round rubber thingy in his crust. My wonderful dough maker fell apart right in Ben's slice of pizza! I was glad that Ben was not hurt and hadn't choked, but I was so sad that my favorite appliance could not be used again. This is not the end of the story...

Jessica was doing the dishes and turned on the garbage disposal. It made a horrible sound. I told her she has got to put her hand down there and check it before she turns the disposal on. (It's a gross job, I know. But necessary!) I ended up sticking my hand in there and couldn't find anything. I turned the disposal on again and quickly turned it off. There was still something down there wreaking havoc.

By this time, Brock walked in to see what was going on. He got out his little flashlight and started digging around. After a few minutes he was able to pull out three tiny ball bearings! Guess what they came out of...my blessed dough maker! Does anyone have a bread maker that they want to give away?

My Wish For You

I just came across this and thought it was worth sharing. A little humor to start the year -

My Wish for You in 2010 -

May peace break into your home

and may thieves come to steal your debts.

May the pockets of your jeans become a magnet for $100 bills.

May love stick to your face like Vaseline

and may laughter assault your lips.

May happiness slap you across the face

and may your tears be that of joy.

May the problems you had forget your home address!

Happy New Year!!"

Merry Christmas to all

Our family in real life...