Puppy Sitting

Remember how I mentioned that Brian's dog had puppies? One of them got sick and Shawn's sister took him in and nursed him back to health. Having two dogs of her own already, she couldn't keep him! Sad! Anyways, she was moving to Layton and asked if we could puppy sit for a few days (hoping we'd fall in love and not be able to give him back!)

He's used to having brothers and here there are none! He looked around the house for a while searching for the other puppies or Max or Journey-nope! Just two girls!

Finally, he just gave up, laid down and went to sleep!

What a dozer! He would sleep all day and play for about an hour at night before bed!

Heading to the store to buy a leash and collar. We brought him home on a Saturday night and the next morning we went to church. He escaped our yard and I was frantically looking for him. No one had seen him with us before and he didn't have a collar on! Luckily, he found a man in the garage across the street, sat under his chair and slept! Time to get a collar so people know he belongs to someone! (He didn't have one because the puppies chewed them off each other!)

Wow! My girls come up with interesting things...

Here's Lys

and Boo

Alyssa is fishing for the dog. I don't think he's interested!

We thought we'd try to get some pictures of the girls with Winston before he went back home (No we aren't keeping him-sorry! It was fun to pretend he was our for a minute though!)

After the photos (which were dark, I know) Winston went and hid under Karah's bed!

Bye Winston!

Karah's birthday party

We planned a bbq so our friends from where we just moved could come out and see the new place and their kids could help celebrate Karah's 5th b-day. (This was over a month ago, I'm way behind! Shawn left the day after her bday so we waited till he was home from Germany and invited some friends over.) I saw this cool cake online and thought I'd try it for Boo's party! While I was packing to move, Karah made invites with rainbows on the front, the number 5 and the friend's name. Since she's been loving rainbows lately I thought this cake would be perfect!

I never thought of this as an option, now my mind is reeling with ideas for colored cakes/cupcakes for each holiday! (Yes, you can steal my idea!)

The bottom layer I poured in random and it looked kinda cool...

But I think I preferred the "pour each color in the center" method. (You can see the results towards the end of this post...)

I frosted it in white (so the inside was a surprise and the rainbow on top would stand out.) Then Karah helped with the rest. She sorted the skittles by color and handed them to me for the rainbow, we put the marshmallow clouds on and lined the rest with the leftover skittles. Soo easy and fun!

I am actually pleased with the results (although I am reminded once again why I should just make my own frosting instead of using the yummy stuff in the can-it's so sticky and hard to make look nice!)

We had planned on having water activities, a blow up water slide, and a bounce house but it wasn't very good weather and we were worried it would rain through the party. It stopped about an hour before so we pulled out the bounce house and had the bbq. It was fun! Of course, before long, Karah was in her "golden princess" dress and soon she had me singing "It's my party and I'll cry if I want to"-because that's what she was doing! She threw a short fit, went in her room and came out fine! I guess even 5 year olds still have their moments (I know I do!) The picture of Lys cut off is a demonstration of my awesome photo skills! I frequently have the camera zoomed in or not even aimed at a person when I take the awesome shot! I at least got her smile-the next one was of the bottom of her pants-sweet! I need to be more aware...

Time to sing and cut the cake (revealing the surprise rainbow-I was super excited! Shocker huh!)

Here's what the inside looked like. The bottom layer (on the left) was the random pour. Still looks cool but it wasn't the effect I was going for. I think it was fun and the cake didn't taste any different, it was actually yummy and I'm craving myself some right now!

Present time! Tons of fun stuff, including makeup which the girls are modeling on the bottom two pics. Thanks for coming! It was great seeing you and please stay in touch! We love you all!

Come to our house! You can have your baby locked in a room!

Yes, you read it right! We had our friends, the Bakers, over for dinner since they'd be out of town and wouldn't be able to come to Karah's party the next day. Here's Alyssa cleaning up the mess she just made. We were just sitting down to dinner when Wyatt (their 1 year old) crawled down the hall, into Karah's room and closed the door. Justin went to get him and asked if we had the key to the door. What?! It's locked?! Back up a little, Karah's room was a den for the people before us (apparently they felt it neccessary to use a real key lock for the door) and they never gave us a key to the room. We'd been planning on taking the knob off and switch hers with ours but I couldn't figure out how to get it off-there were no screws. Justin tried and tried to pick the lock.

We tried the window. Locked! Holy cow! We finally called a locksmith and he dropped everything and came to help. Poor Wyatt! I think he could feel the worry. He was probably wondering why we didn't just open the door! He was hungry so we'd pass stuff under the door but Angela was afraid he might choke and we wouldn't be able to help him so we stopped. Angela sang and talked to him the whole time that Justin was working on the lock.

On the other side of the house, the girls were having a grand ole time! Dressed up as princesses, they danced and played the whole time!

They are so cute together! Every time the three of them get together, they end up in princess dresses!

Then the locksmith came.

It took quite awhile for even him to open the lock. It was a really secure lock (WHY IS IT ON MY CHILD'S BEDROOM DOOR!?!) Anyways, when he finally got it open, we were all happy to see Wyatt after almost an hour of being locked in a room (thank goodness the room was childproofed!) The locksmith was really nice and took both door knobs off and switched them and rekeyed the lock so we could get in! He had to use a special tool to get that hard doorknob off so I guess I wouldn't have ever been able to take it off myself! He didn't charge us for the 'child removal'-he was awesome! Needless to say, he was tipped good and thanked bunches!

trying to pick the lock

The girls ate some rolls while waiting and watching all the commotion!

We felt so bad that Wyatt got locked in! I felt helpless though. What can you do? I think I just paced, wishing there was something I could do to help!

The locksmith had a beautiful audience!

All safe and sound! Poor little guy! Will you guys ever come back?! Hence, the offer! Come to our house! You can have your baby locked in a room! (We have the key now though so it won't be as bad-I promise!)

8-12-09 riding bikes

Finally we got Karah's bike tuned up (all the screws and bolts tightened) so she could ride it! She was super excited!

Karah lets Alyssa ride her scooter when she's on her bike-she's getting pretty good! Every time she gets to one end of the property she climbs off and walks around this little tree. I hope it doesn't break one day from her hanging on to it!

Alyssa

Karah

I love them riding together-so cute!

The end...time for dinner!

I saw this on Rachael Ray and it looked easy and yummy. It's called Cheesy Hash Brown Chili. Here's the "official" recipe and her cooking video of it...

She went through it quickly and I wrote it down as she went and made it for dinner. It was yummy! Here's the recipe...brown your beef and some diced onion. Add a few Tbsp of chili powder and a few tsp of cumin along with some salt and pepper. She added a squirt of tomato paste but my tomato paste doesn't come in a tube! So I just put in some tomato paste-like 2 Tbps or so. Stir. Then add 15 oz can of kidney beans (or black beans-we used those the other day and it was still yummy) add a can of diced tomatoes. Stir and heat through then put in a baking dish. Last, take a half a bag of frozen shredded hashbrowns and cheese, mix together and spread over the other mixture. Put it in the oven till the cheese is melting and hashbrowns are done. (I did 350 for about 35? minutes) So easy. I was actually thinking it would be an easy freezer meal...

Here's Karah trying to bring in both bikes. Usually, I would rush down and help her but it was fun to watch her try to solve a problem. She could have taken two trips down and it would have been faster and easier but she insisted on taking both bikes at the same time! (Guess she's going to be a mom that tries to take all the groceries in the house in one trip-like me-instead of going back and forth!) When she got them in the garage she said, "I'm not very strong you know!" Looks to me like you are, girly!