A Handy Dandy Cartoon

Ok, so Mckay has been kind of obsessed with watching Blue's Clues on Netflix lately. He's in the first 5 seasons which were the good old days with Steve, and I have to say, I actually kind of enjoy this obsession. Can I just say I absolutely hate most kids shows because they are all that creepy computer generated animation that looks...well creepy, and they all teach kids letters or words and such all in the same annoying songy way. With Blue's Clues, I actually find myself giggling sometimes at things Steve says (he's got a seriously funny sense of humor...don't judge). And the show actually teaches more than the norm, like weighing and measuring, how to do things different when a baby comes around, or restaurant skills. Maybe I'm crazy and I'm just alone way too much that I start to enjoy these things, but today I am grateful for Blue and Steve haha.

Even if I am crazy, Mckay is just way too freakin cute when he's watching the show.  He giggles when they do silly things, and he always sings along and does the hand motions to the songs. I'm often interrupted by cleaning or cooking or something because Mckay turns me around to sing the mail song to me haha. Here's all I could catch on video for y'all :)

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MzDZbe-q0Lo&list=UU3bDKlyVkqnEwWvA_oB4JPg&index=1&feature=plcp


That's the link to the youtube video since blogger decided it didn't want to recognize the embed code....annnnd the blogger video I tried to upload decided it didn't want to have sound. lol.

A FABULOUS Book Blog

Since so many of us have been bitten by the reading bug I thought I'd share one of my favorite book blogs with you:  I Am a Reader, Not a Writer.  She posts lots of great book reviews and reads a lot of similar books as me.  She's also LDS and reads more "cleaner" books and always gives feedback in the review as to what kind of content it contains.

And one of the best parts of her blog is that she posts TONS of book giveaways!  So for those of us (ahem, Emilee) who are building our book library, this is a great chance to get some for free.  And usually a couple times a month she hosts a Giveaway Book Hop (one just started today) where over a hundred book blogs participate so you can go to each blog and enter.  Some give away specific books but a lot give away a $10 gift card for Amazon or the Book Depository so you can pick your own book.  Pretty sweet!  I haven't won anything yet, but I am determined to! :)

Anyway, just thought I'd share.

-marie

Update on our Garden

Guys, I am SO excited by how well our garden is doing!!!  The kids and I love going out every day to see how much bigger things have gotten and I am loving the fresh produce we get to eat.  We already have plans to expand next year. :)

I planted WAY too much in this tiny planter! :P

Cailyn's cherry tomatoes -- we haven't gotten any red ones yet but there are a TON growing so it won't be long.

Bell peppers. So far this is the only one that has grown.  I may have to try the epsom salt trick I found on Pinterest.

Lots of jalapenos

Cute little watermelon

We've eaten LOTS of zucchini already -- grilled, in omelets, zucchini bread, etc.

Landon's strawberry plant has been doing GREAT! He loves that he has strawberries to just about every other day.  (And for a super picky kid, this has been great for him.)  I keep meaning to get a matching one for the rest of us.  :)

Tyler & Jessica -- how is your garden doing?!?!

-marie

Back to School

3rd grade is awesome! What a fantastic few days of school! After the first day Taylor brought me over some beautiful flowers. I love using them to decorate my house. His parents also bought me a gift card for subway because they knew I wouldn't want to make food after an exhausting first week of school. Yeah, they like me! :) So sweet! And today I got some chips and salsa sent to me today during school. Missy, my loan agent, decided to send me them for the first week of school especially because her kids go to my school. What a fun couple of days. I'll post some pictures of my classroom and students...they are so fun!

Christmas in July

Taylor and I had a fun date night! I decided that we didn't need to wait till December for some Christmas fun, so we had some tonight! We did all the works! We made paper snowflakes to add to the decorations. And yes, I've never gotten to use my Christmas decorations so I did tonight before he got here so we could be that much more festive! Then we made a gingerbread house with random cheep candy (thank-goodness grandma let me borrow her mixer because it made it so easy to make the frosting!) And the best part was that we had our hands tied together the whole time we created it which made things that much more fun AND more of a mess!!! So awesome!!! Then we snuggled up with some hot chocolate (ok...just the mugs because it was too hot for real hot chocolate) and some popcorn. And yes, we had to put on pj's to get the full effect!!! What a fun night!

On the Menu

Erika & I used to share our weekly menus and it was great for getting new ideas.  I've been in a rut lately and haven't really cooked a whole lot (meaning we've had lots of cold cereal for dinner -- which my kids are sadly totally okay with!).  I'm not sure if anyone else menu plans much, but if you do, or if you try a new recipe you love, make sure you post it! :)

Monday - Spaghetti, green salad, garlic bread
Tuesday - Crockpot Chicken w/cream cheese & black beans, rice, melon
Wednesday - meatloaf, roasted potatoes, veggies of some kind
Thursday - baked potato bar
Friday - Alfredo veggie pizza
Saturday - Italian chicken skewers, rice

-marie

Sailing

What a fabulously fun day sailing with Taylor and dad! We sailed around Coronado bay for like 6 hours. Unfortunately I wasn't skilled at steering and almost tipped us over...quite the adventure! We also saw this awesome pirate ship as we were sailing. (They also made sure to give us a shark whacker just in case...mom would be happy ;) We all have to go sailing as a family because it was so much fun!

For The Girls

A few months ago Meagan had this fabulous idea to start a blog for all us girls.  She asked me to set it all up and, of course, life got in the way and I totally forgot!  But thanks to a nudge from Erika I am now on top of things. :)

So here's a blog for us girls to share what's going on in our lives.  I'm really excited about it.  I loved being in Utah last week and seeing *most* of you.  I hate that we all live apart.  I was just thinking yesterday about how much I took my family for granted when I was young and now that I appreciate you all SO MUCH you just aren't around.  How is that fair?!  Anyway, hopefully this blog will be a way for us all to feel like we are a big part of each others lives.  I love you all so very much!!!!!

And some how, some way, we need to update this picture of all of us!!!  (Only because I am totally the odd one out here.  No one told me we were doing cute duck faces.  :P)

-marie