Thank you PF Changs

Thank you for such a great birthday dinner last night in which I did not have to prepare or wash dishes for. I quite enjoyed the Honey Chicken and Potstickers. Paul, unfortunately got 1/2 Kung Pao Chicken and 1/2 Kung Pao Tofu (yuck) so he only 1/2 enjoyed his meal.

Thank you Paul for my presents and for bringing home the PF Changs. Also thank you for playing me in a head to head of Wii Carnival games in which you promptly kicked my trash.

Thank you Lana for being relatively good all day up until you hit Tanner in the head and made him cry.

Thank you Tanner for being such a good boy. You have no idea how much that really means to me.

I love you guys...Thank you for such a nice birthday!

Who took my baby?

And could you please return him because I miss having a small baby. This big guy is weighing in at 15 1/2 lbs. and is currently wearing 9 month clothing. I think he was in his 6 month clothes for like a week. Well, besides growing like the weeds in our front yard he is just so fun and has started to do a real laugh. I've tried to capture it on video but he seems to know and won't do it as soon as I turn it on. Sneaky boy...

The Ultimate Chocolate Chip Cookie

Well, so far anyway. I have just made my new favorite chocolate chip cookie recipe courtesy of Paula Dean on the Food Network. Her title of the show in which she demo's the cookie is appropriately named Chocolate Fever. And since I am too lazy to take a picture of my own cookies (that would require changing the batteries in the camera and putting the memory card back in, taking a picture, then downloading it to the computer so I can post it on the blog...too much work). I am instead posting the picture from the Food Network site and making it big so your mouth starts watering. Anyway, back to the cookies. They turned out absolutely heavenly. A little crunchy on the outside and chewy on the inside. I highly recommend you try these. I omitted the bittersweet dark chocolate because I'm just not a fan and instead of the brickle chips I used a couple of Heath Bars which turned out great.

I'm not sure why I'm on such a baking spree lately. It might have something to do with my new Kitchen Aid hand mixer which I love so much!

Here's the cookie link.

I'm a map, I'm a map, I'm a map, I'm a map, He's a map!

Who do we ask when we don't know which way to go?

Well, if you were looking to come to our house you would have to ask one of us since our house was un-mappable (is that even a word? Just spell checked it and no it's not but I like making up my own words.). However, that is no more! We are now Google-able! Now, don't confuse that with Mapquest-able because we are still invisible on there (no big surprise). I know it's a sad thing to be excited about on a Saturday morning, but it's quiet around here because Paul's working and Lana's watching Dora.

Frosted Mini Wheats

I find this weird beyond belief. Lana eats an entire bowl (toddler size of course) of Frosted Mini Wheats for breakfast. It is not just a one time fluke either. She has eaten it the last 4 out of 6 mornings for breakfast. I let her choose her own cereal and have tried on numerous occasions to convince her that Cinnamon Toast Crunch tastes better than Frosted Mini Wheats but to no avail. The one catch to her eating it entirely however, is that I have to feed her (ugh). When I was little, I can remember not wanting to touch any kind of cereal that wasn't bursting the seams with sugar with a 10 ft. pole. I wonder though, if she is just choosing the box because there's a picture of a Barbie watch on the front. But it still doesn't explain the fact that she eats it all gone. WEIRD.

Bath time in the family room

This was the scene I came across last night as I came back into the family room after putting dinner in the oven:

Tanner sitting in his chair. Lana holding an empty (clean) yogurt container pretending to give Tanner a bath. She would "scrub" him with a dry wash cloth and then "rinse" him with the yogurt container. He started fussing a bit and Lana said "Oh Tanner, s'okay. You want bubble bath? Okay! Here you go!"

Could we stop with the Tornados already? Please?

Seriously, my baby is finally sleeping in 8 hour stretches (well, 2 times in the last 4 days) and yet I'm getting woken up by these massive storms fronts that keep passing through. Last night it was the thunder and lightning. Previously it was the rain pounding so hard on the house it was deafening (how Paul and Lana can sleep through that is beyond me). Thankfully last night wasn't as bad as the last one. You know the storms are bad when you turn your tv on at 3am and see the local weather people talking about tornado warnings in your area. Luckily there were no weather people on tv last night so I promptly went back to sleep. Still, I think there's something in the stars that's saying Michelle will never get a full 8 hours of uninterrupted sleep for the next 20 years. On the positive side the weather today was beautiful. Sunny blue skies with 70 degree temps. Doesn't get much better than that around here.

$3.25 Cupcakes

Okay, so the other day I was flipping through the channels and happened upon Martha Stewart doing a segment on cupcakes. Who doesn't love cupcakes? So I stopped to watch. This woman who was doing the demo apparently started her own chain of exclusive cupcake stores (they sell nothing but cupcakes apparently) and she's opening up more stores in the future. She sells each individual cupcake for $3.25. I'm thinking to myself, these cupcakes have to be good for people to be paying $3.25 for a small cake when you can go to the grocery store, buy a cake mix and make 24 cupcakes for under $2. Anyway, I got the recipe off of Martha Stewarts website and made these for our Valentine's Day treats. Now that I've had them, I will admit that I would probably pay $3.25 for these cupcakes, yes they were that good. Of course I would only be able to eat one once in a blue moon because the cupcake recipe and frosting recipe combined take 3 sticks of real butter and only produce 12 cupcakes. (everythings better with butter right?) So here's my picture of my masterpiece cupcakes. They're called Sprinkles Strawberry Cupcakes with Strawberry frosting. Sadly, though, when I went to get out my cupcake liners I had only 11. Ugh. Here's the link to the recipe.



Here's Lana, a very happy girl after I let her lick the frosting off of the spatula.

Lana's new game

Scene: Tanner quietly sleeping.

Lana creeps quietly up to wherever he is, gets close to his face as she can get without touching him, then shouts BAAAAH!!! Then laughs histerically when he opens his eyes. Repeats until Mommy takes pity on Tanner and moves him to his crib.

A River Runs Through It (our backyard)

We knew we had a problem with our backyard before we even moved into the house. We've procrastinated doing anything about it because honestly it's going to take a bit of work. However, we've (and when I say we I mean Paul) decided to put a French drain in our back yard. We welcome anyone who'd like to come and help. At the Taj-Mah-Paul we offer free room and board, free meals, free transportation if you want to sit in between two car seats, and two VERY cute kids to keep you entertained during down time. Any takers??? Yeah, I know I wouldn't either...

Husband Tag...this should be interesting

What is his name?
Paul

How long have you been together?
7 years (6 years married in May)

How long did you date?
We started hanging out early of 2001 but didn't date seriously until August. We got engaged December 2001 and married 5 months later May 2002.

How old is he?
30!!

Who eats more?
Definately Paul. His rationalization is he weighs as much as me, Lana and Tanner combined, so he should get 3/4 of all good things to eat to "keep up his strength".

Who said "I love you" first?
I think Paul, but honestly 6 years is a long time ago.

Who's taller?
Ah, if you know me then that's a silly question. Almost everyone's taller than me.

Who can sing better?
Me

Who's smarter?
Paul and I are pretty opposite, he's smarter in many things I am not and I am smarter in many things he is not.

Who does the laundry?
I do and I loathe every minute of it.

Who pays the bills?
I do and it's a good thing I'm organized or Paul would be lost if I died tomorrow.

Who sleeps on the right side?
I do, I didn't used to until we had kids and really I have to sleep closest to the door or else I trip over everything Paul leaves on the floor before going to bed.

Who mows the lawn?
Paul, I refuse to learn how to do that since I do the majority of the work that goes into keeping the inside of the house clean.

Who cooks dinner?
I do! And I enjoy it most of the time except when I try out new recipes and they turn out bad. A few have never made it to the kitchen table and ended up going straight down the garbage disposal.

Who drives?
Paul about 95% of the time.

Who is more stubborn?
We both are pretty stubborn.

Who kissed who first?
Paul, because he refused to kiss me for the first 2 months of dating.

Who asked who out first?
Me! I asked him to come with me and my roomate and his roomate to a Linkin Park concert because we were scared of all the drunks and pot smokers who would be there.

Who proposed?
Paul, he even got his friend to video tape it from far away.

Who has more friends?
Uh, me...all of our construction friends left us and then we moved. Since then he's been too busy to make new ones.

Who is more sensitive?
It depends on if I'm pregnant or not.

Who has more siblings?
Uh, definately Paul with 8.

Who wears the pants?
Oh, I let Paul wear the pants because he knows I'm the one who washes them.

I'm tagging Channa since she sent me the other one.

Whew, I'm tired of playing tag today.

All about me...

I got tagged and luckily I'm bored today or else I never would've had time to sit down and think about all of this, so here goes...



Where was I ten years ago? February of 1998? I was a sophomore in high school just about to turn 16. I took Scott Jensen (a senior) to the girls choice Valentine's dance 14 days before my 16th birthday.



5 things on my To Do list today...
1. Clean the bathrooms
2. Do Laundry
I'm really procrastinating doing those first two. Any volunteers to do it for me?
3. Make Tanner a new blanket because this kid is growing like a weed, but still likes to be swaddled. Unfortunately the blankets that we have are not big enough to make a Tanner burrito anymore.
4. Find a good book to read because I finished my last one yesterday.
5. Go visiting teaching.



What would I do if I were suddenly a billionaire? Definately pay my tithing. Pay off our mortgage. Hire a personal chef. Hire a professional decorator to decorate my house. Buy my Audi Q7. Travel around the world. Invest the rest of it so my kids can share in the wealth later.



5 bad habits: I can be extremely impatient, when I find a good book I read it late into the night and so I'm dead tired the next day, I am a procrastinator, I leave dishes in the sink even though the dishwasher is empty, I don't exercise as much as I should, okay at all, but my elliptical should be here Wednesday!



5 jobs I've had: Working for Jim Fisher doing janitorial work, Cashier at Reams, Bakery and Cashier at Sam's Club in Provo, Quality Assurance at Neways in Springville, Accounts Recievable and Payable clerk at Rockwell Automation.



5 things people don't know about me: Most people know I play the piano, but they don't know that I took lessons for 10 years (sadly I should be better than I really am). I HATE black licorice with a passion (it smells!). I lettered in Tennis in High School. Sadly, I watch The Hills on Mtv. I was asked to teach early morning seminary in South Carolina only 4 years after I had graduated from seminary myself (poor kids).

Well, that's me. I'm going to tag Paul and see if I can't get him to do this. It'll probably be more interesting than mine.

Chocoholics Anonymous

Hi, my name is Michelle and I'm a chocoholic...I love chocolate. I am so thankful for chocolate. I'm thankful that chocolate keeps me sane when things get a little crazy. I'm also thankful to Cold Stone Creamery for sending me this email. I know what we are going to be doing for Family Home Evening tonight...and maybe Valentine's Day...and maybe my birthday. Oh, and if you caught Iron Chef America last night, you would know that their secret ingredient was of course, chocolate.

Creepy guy in Dallas airport

Okay, so we are sitting at our gate at DFW waiting for our plane. I'm feeding Tanner and Lana is doing the Crayola finger paints. This guy sitting at the same gate stands up and walks toward us with his luggage in tow. We are sitting in the chairs up against the wall, there's really no reason for him to be walking toward us. He says no word whatsoever, just walks up to the empty chair at the end of the row and deposits his luggage next to us and then leaves. Okay, totally scary especially listening to the recorded message that plays throughout the entire airport that says to please report any unattended luggage (or something to that effect). What am I supposed to do about that? I seriously was tempted to turn him in to airport security. Things started going through my mind like, what was this guy wearing? Could I describe him if I was asked to? Could I pick him out of a line up? Then I started rationalizing to myself that this guy really didn't look scary, maybe he needed to go to the bathroom and didn't want to take his luggage. Then I thought, what if it was some kind of airport test. Like I was supposed to report this guy and I am failing to do so. Then the guy walks past the gate 3 times without coming to get his luggage. Then I started getting mad. Why did he deposit his luggage next to us? Why am I wasting my time worrying about this guys stuff? Then I wanted to report his abandoned luggage just to teach him a lesson. Why should I feel responsible for this guys luggage when he obviously doesn't care much for his valuables. For all he knows we could've been criminals and stolen his stuff. (Criminals have kids too you know.) In the end, I did nothing and he was nothing more than a business man traveling to Vicksburg, MS. However, he will forever be the creepy guy in the Dallas airport.

Just a little less love...PLEASE!?

I need Lana to love Tanner just a little bit less. Not too much, just enough where I can go potty and not have to worry about what I'll find on his head when I come out. Or enough where she is not shoving his paci in his mouth to the point of him gagging. Just this afternoon when she woke up from her nap, Tanner was sleeping in his chair in our room. I caught her 5 times trying to sneak in there with blanket and paci in tow, anxious to shove that paci in his mouth and put the blanket on his head. (*sigh*) I'm thankful that Lana doesn't despise him or try to do violent things to him, it's just no matter what I say to her or show her that she might give Tanner an owie, she just doesn't grasp the phrase "Leave Tanner alone." As I sit here and type and watch Lana and Tanner, she has put 2 different blankets over his face and is now trying to shove part of a blanket in his mouth. Now it is over his face. Ugh...I don't wish for my kids to grow up fast, I just look forward to the day when Tanner can defend himself from his over-loving sister and I can stop worrying that she will accidentally smother him with her love.