Creative Photo Display

I came across the cutest idea for displaying photos. I found it here. Now I just need to find some old shutters like these ones. Cute, huh?

Just in time for Halloween

The past two nights in a row something really weird has happened. Almost the same exact story both nights.

About an hour after Paige fell asleep, I heard her laughing hysterically. I ran upstairs, thinking, what the heck is going on?

I went into her room and she was laying on her side, with her eyes open, looking straight ahead, and just giggling and laughing really loud.

It was so creepy!!

You might think it sounds funny. Nope. It was weird.

So I crouched down by her and said, "Paige, what's so funny?"

She ignored me and kept laughing. It was as if she couldn't hear me or see me. She was looking in my direction, but never acknowledged my presence.

I'm pretty sure she was totally asleep. Both times I couldn't get her to respond or even really look at me.

After a couple minutes she went back to sleep. But I was truly freaked out. I think the fact that Nate has been gone for a couple days doesn't help. I am so jumpy and paranoid already.

So, I'm wondering if this is going to be a recurring incident. Is Paige a sleep-laugher?

I'm sure I will think it was funny in a couple days. Just not today.

Outrageous Chocolate Chip Cookies

picture from allrecipes.com

Nate and I agree- these might be the best cookies I've ever made. They are a great combination of peanut butter, oatmeal, and chocolate chips (and I added some walnuts). We thought they were pretty amazing!!

You can find the recipe here. Or here...

Outrageous Chocolate Chip Cookies


1/2 cup butter
1/2 cup white sugar
1/3 cup packed brown sugar
1/2 cup peanut butter (not chunky)
1/2 teaspoon vanilla extract
1 egg
1 cup all-purpose flour
1 teaspoon baking soda
1/4 teaspoon salt
1/2 cup rolled oats
1 cup semisweet chocolate chips (I used chunks, which are so good)
about 1/2 cup chopped walnuts (optional)

Preheat oven to 350 degrees F (175 degrees C).
In a medium bowl, cream together the butter, white sugar and brown sugar until smooth. Stir in the peanut butter, vanilla and egg until well blended. Combine the flour, baking soda and salt; stir into the batter just until moistened. Mix in the oats and chocolate chips until evenly distributed. Drop by tablespoonfuls on to lightly greased cookie sheets.
Bake for 10 to 12 minutes in the preheated oven, until the edges start to brown. Cool on cookie sheets for about 5 minutes before transferring to wire racks to cool completely.

Makes 3 dozen

Family Photo Session

I am really happy with how these turned out. What do all the photos of Kate have in common? Her tongue sticking out! The photographer captured the real Kate though, because she has her tongue out like 99% of the time.

For those of you who live in the Spokane area, Rachel Schell is a great photographer. We were really happy with her. Her prices are great too.

Follow the Prophet

Paige just turned on the TV (by herself... eek!) and it was on the BYU channel.

She said, "Mom, I'm gonna listen what the prophet says, OK?"


How cute. :)

Family photos!

We had some pictures taken today and the photographer posted a couple on her blog. I'm so excited to see the rest! By the way, taking family pictures with a toddler and baby is not easy, in case you thought it was.

Just for the record...

I've been really out of the blogging loop lately because we've been riding an emotional rollercoaster. I want to document this craziness. For the past couple weeks we have been 99% sure that we were moving to Seattle. Yep. Nate applied for a promoted position that he was really excited about and he felt like he was going to get the job.

I got our house all ready to put on the market and even had a couple people come see it over the weekend. We were "sure" that we were moving. I was sad, but also excited about Nate's job opportunity. But mostly sad. I didn't want to move because I really love living here in Eastern Washington and I was afraid of the whole moving process. To be honest, I've been a stressed-out crazy person for the past few weeks.

So today, after weeks of working, practicing, traveling to interviews, polishing his resume, stressing out, etc., Nate was offered the job. And 3 hours later we decided to turn it down. Crazy?

Here's why: The salary he was offered was quite a bit lower than we had planned and Seattle is expensive. Kind of a big deal. And who knows if we could sell our house. And moving is just a nightmare in itself. So... we realized it wasn't worth it. It was kind of a depressing decision after all that work and planning and stressing, but we feel better about staying.

We're happy here. I guess that's what we were supposed to learn from this.

The End.

P.S. A lot of people knew that we were planning on moving, so I wanted to set the record straight on my blog. Plus, I always feel better about stressful situations when I share them with the world. :) So thanks for listening. Or reading.

I've been mistaken

Remember when I said that this was the best frosting recipe ever? Well, I was wrong.

This is! Oh man, it's good stuff. It's not as sweet as many other frostings. It's so light and fluffy that you just want to pile it on. I actually made some frosting-filled cupcakes for the first time and it was fun to do. They were like Hostess ones, but way better. Yep. Try it.

This is what the frosting looks like. Yum.

Someone is ready for Halloween...

My mom made Paige an ADORABLE Snow White costume and it came in the mail today. Paige was so excited!!She was showing Nate as he came down the stairs.

Isn't it the cutest thing ever?

Now, if we could just convince her to take it off...

THANK YOU, MOM!! We love it!!

Guess who's crawling...

Nope, not Nate. He mastered that weeks ago.

Kate started crawling last week, and now she's officially into everything. Second babies definitely grow up faster than first babies. We love her SO MUCH.

Cutie Pie

Isn't Paige a great photographer?