The Final Product

One last photo of this year's donation to our
neighborhood service auction.

Pop! Pop!

I finally found a reason to break out the Bakerella and go for it! It wasn't easy or
breezy (and I need an army of cleaning ladies to bail me out of the aftermath),
but oh my goodie - aren't they cute?

This one ate the top off first and savored each and every bite.

She licked right down to the chocolaty center.

Always a photo op with this one.

And the baby bunny of the bunch thought it was so tasty,
she just had to take a moment to savor.

Spotted: Old Navy

My sister in law Chris reminded me that spring must be somewhere out there (despite near zero temps and loads of snow in our yard) because stores are starting to stock some warmer weather gear. Check out these Old Navy umbrellas. Boden look, Old Navy price, no? Too good to pass up.

Granola Goodness

Somedays I like to surprise the kids with an after school snack that trumps the usual. It's been awhile since I've made granola and boy did it hit the spot. We had it for the snack, again for dinner, and then again for breakfast. It's tasty with cold milk, warmed as a hot cereal with milk, sprinkled on yogurt, or just shoved in by the fist full straight from the pan.

Spread 4 c. oats on cookie sheet. Bake for 10 minutes at 350 degrees.

Stir in:
1 c. coconut
1 c. nuts - walnuts, pecans, almonds - they're all good
3/4 c. wheat germ

Add:
1/2 c. honey
1/3 c. oil
1 tsp. vanilla

Mix until oats are well coated. Bake for 20 minutes at 350 degrees. Stir occasionally to brown evenly. Add raisins, craisins, or whatever your little heart desires after baking.

Finally.

Read. Sniffle. Sniffle. Read. Tears. Read. Read. Read. Sniffle. Blow. Read. Tears. Wipe. Read. Sniffle. Read. Tears. Done. Good. So. Good.

Cold City Chic!

The other day I spotted a girl with some fingerless gloves on similar to these...I loved them and am now on the hunt to own a pair myself.

Pathetic

Went out on a hot date last night...with myself. Mostly just wanted to avoid making dinner and bedtime (what can I say, it was a LONG week.) So around 5:30 Bryce lovingly nudged me out the door. I found myself a little tired, a little sick (anyone else have this nasty cold?) wandering in Trolley Square. What did I find to set my heart a'flutterin'? Not a zchuzzy piece a jewelry or a fab new pair of shoes. No, it was these GORGEOUS color coordinated cleaning supplies at Restoration Hardware. I think I've sunk to a new low.

Need a Project?

I am really wanting to make some of these funky spunky recycled rosettes with my girls - and check out the rest of this website. Loads of hunker down and wait out the cold projects await...

Today

Today I am proud to be an American and am truly awed by a democratic system that allows and fosters a peaceful transfer of power. Despite my political leanings toward the other side, as a citizen of this great nation I respect my new president and wish for America growth, success, and renewal in the coming years.

"All Americans have a role in rebuilding the nation by renewing the traditions of hard work, honesty and fair play, tolerance, loyalty and patriotism."
-Barack Obama, January 20, 2009

Our Morning Watch

One of my favorite little moments in the day is right after we've sent the girls off to school in the morning. (And its not because I'm down from four to two children...although that helps tremendously with the noise level :) Josie and I stand at the door and wave goodbye and then I shut the door. Then, without fail, Josie toddles over to the window to watch them walk away until they are out of sight. Sometimes she knocks on the window, sometimes she just watches. I haven't told the girls she does this because I know they would turn their attention to the window making coochie coo faces and the natural sweetness of the moment would disappear. So it remains Josie and I's secret little indulgence each morning - we watch our girls walk all the way to school, and they don't even know it.

A King Day of Service

Like millions of Americans across the country, the Roberts answered President-Elect Obama's call for service on King Day. We spent the entire morning making homemade chicken noodle soup, light wheat rolls, and chocolate sandwich cookies to deliver for lunch to the widows in our neighborhood. What a wonderful chance it was for us to serve our community - even Max caught the vision of the day. After he was smothered with gratitude and thank yous from the first neighbor, he ran back to the car and said, "Mom, I like this job! Give me another bowl of soup!" And he was off to the next house. You can catch a glimpse of the little deliverers here. Oh, and for a little MLK Day humor, refer back to last years post here. Happy MLK Day all.

More Recipe Chit Chat

Thank you Angela for suggesting Tastebook! What a fun website to peruse and although I haven't spent a significant amount of time on it - it looks like it can access recipes from many food websites (like Epicurious and All Recipes). I love all the personalization options.

I'm still on the hunt for a website dedicated to those of us who don't mind getting flour and sugar between our keys (right Kasey?) and have no plans of printing recipes off - just storing them (and most importantly, easily formatting them) in order to cook straight from the laptop. I'll keep searching and cooking and in the mean time, cursing my recipe book that is overflowing with recipe print-offs. Maybe I need to get on that "organize recipes" resolutions a little sooner than later.

WANTED

Because my hubby gives start-up companies money for a living, I am not shy about throwing my own ideas at him for technologies that would make my life easier. What I am currently looking for (and might already exist unbeknownst to me) is a recipe management sight that would collect all the recipes I have found online and want to keep from various sights, blogs, and e-mails. If I could cut and paste a recipe into a sight that would then file and keep it neatly in one place, I could literally stop printing off recipes. I would love having a personal online cookbook. (I bring the laptop into the kitchen for so many recipes already.) What do you think fellow kitchenistas? Have you found something to manage your online tasties - or am I onto something?

Too Good Not to Share

via Apartment Therapy New York

What could be more perfect than a marriage between two favorites? One that we can all benefit from. Orla Kiely has designed a line of housewares for Target. This is so good, I almost kept it to myself dear friends. But I love you too much, so instead - I'll be seeing you at that irresistible bulls-eye soon!

One year - One Giveaway

What better way to celebrate my blogaversary than with one of my little creations that was inspired by a certain phrase that all bloggers love? Please just do me one favor and leave a comment to say hello and that you've stopped by. (Don't be shy, please say hi! ) I'll happily (and randomly) choose someone to send a necklace to - my gift to you. Much love. xoxoxo

Guess who's celebrating today?

Not Bryce, not Kal, El, Max or Baby J. Not me either! It's my blog! My sweet little spot on the web is one year old today. I'm just giddy that this little project of mine is still up and running. What a treat it is to share bits and pieces of my life with you. Whether I know you personally or not, I hope you've enjoyed my little contribution to the blogosphere and to celebrate I'm going to giveaway one of my favorite accessories of the year...I hope you'll stay tuned!

In Celebration of our First Week in 2009...

A cool photo of B and Kal on a beautiful red rock plateau in St. George on New Years Day.

Breakfast Party

Remember these cute little boxes from Josie's 1st birthday party? Well, my friend Natalie has come up with another great use for them. She is having a birthday party for her 6 year old daughter and is going to have a "Breakfast at Tiffany's" theme. She is using this cute little blue box for the invitation complete with a ring pop inside. Since the crowd is a little young to appreciate the full "movie theme" of the party - she is emphasizing the "breakfast" portion and having the girls come in the morning in their jammies for a pancake stack cake and games. Oh my goodie, doesn't that sound like so much fun? If you want to do something similar, I found these sweet little boxes in the bride/wedding aisle at my local Michaels craft store and I've managed to find tons of creative uses for them. If Natalie will let me, I might just steal this idea for Kalli's next birthday party. Too fun!

Guest Blogger : Bryce

via bryc3

Remember the slugbug game? Well, around our house Smart Cars are the new slugbug. In SLC, they are few and far between so we’ve created a whole game of car spotting we play with the kids as we drive that involves mini coopers, vw bugs, honda elements (juice boxes) and pt cruisers. There’s an intricate point system involved in this game that resets to zero every morning. But, if you’re the first to spot a Smart Car you win the day.

Smart Cars are everywhere in San Francisco, so while I’m out here I take full advantage by snapping a shot and emailing it to AMR and the kids. I’m basically guaranteed a victory every Wednesday and Thursday. As you can see from the shot I emailed them this morning, I won today.

Cell phone cameras, text messages and email are great tools for traveling dads to stay connected to our clans back home while we’re on the road.

To Sum it Up

We had a house full of goodies this Christmas so its nearly impossible to choose a favorite gift that we we received.....

.....but hands down my favorite gift we GAVE was this AWESOME t-shirt. You can find one for yourself here.

p.s. Do you think this guy REALLY drives a mini van?
p.p.s. Do you think I could find anymore words to TYPE in all caps?

Twitter

Bryce has been wanting me to start "tweeting" for sometime now. I've been really hesitant for two reasons:

1. Who cares what I have to say anyway (besides Bryce of course - he cares DEEPLY about all things I have to say, right babe?) and
2. Do I have anything interesting to say?

I've been thinking however, that it might just be the perfect place to record all the funnies that happen during the day with the kids. Today's may have read something like this:

"Walked into the school today for the 5th grade maturation program and found myself a little embarrassed that Kalli had eagerly saved us a seat in the front row. Seriously Kal, do we have to be that close to the diagrams?"

So my question of the day is, "Do you tweet and do you like it?"

p.s. You can follow Bryce on twitter here. He is quite hilarious if you ask me.

Juicy

Does your family use nicknames? Do you have a nickname? If not, come on over and by the end of your visit we'll have one for you. We are chalk full of them and I'm not quite sure why. Someone does something or looks like something or sounds like something...and it begins. Then it morphs and morphs until it finally rolls off the tongue and the nickname is born. Here are just a few that float around our house.

• HB or often just H
  
• Kaje (pronounced cage), Kajey, Kal J,
  
• Schmood or Schmoody, Ella Bella, Elsa Belsa
  
• Bug, Bugger, BugMan, or Buggy
  
• Bunny, J Faye, Faye Faye, Bunny Faye, Baby J, Fayebles
  

p.s. This picture reminded me of why one of her nicknames is Juicy - just look at those lips.

Wheely Bug

This has been a new favorite method of transportation around the house - though I've finally had to forbid everyone older than 3 to stop playing with it, so the one who it was intended for might have a turn. I first spied these at Babinskis when I went to buy a baby gift for one of Bryce's colleagues. You should see the mph on this baby on the hickory floors. We're bound to send somebody to emergency room one of these days...but until then its full speed ahead!

Projects Not accomplished Last Year...

OK, so despite my previous eager beaver post about resolutions - there are several from last year (and probably the years before) that I dread. Here are a few:
1. Transfer home movie videos to dvds so we can actually watch some next Christmas!
2. Figure out what to do with those boxes and boxes of pictures
3. Have some cabinets made for my laundry/craft room and resolve to keep it disaster free.
4. Get creative and use what materials I have for projects instead of purchasing more.
5. Buy Less and Consume less!

I'm probably going to regret publishing these...oh the accountability.