NEEDIN' A BREAK FROM MY KITCHEN

Seriously, the past few days have been NOT so good when it comes to baking in my kitchen! First, my chocolate chip oatmeal cookies came out of the oven flat as pancakes. Well, actually, they were a heck of a lot flatter. So maybe I should refer to it more as paper thin! Oh well, good thing they tasted good but then again if they look like hud who's gonna want to even pick them up to try them. So guess what I did, packaged them up on plates and took them to the neighbors and ran! LOL. Well, kinda! I did take them over with a warning that they weren't pretty and if they didn't want me to make them cookies anymore that they could return the cookies and leave them on my front doorstep and the message would be loud and clear! Then I ran! We really didn't want to pork out on 4 dozen cookies!

Today ended up not being much different! I was making dinner for a friend of mine who had surgery and decided I'd make use of my very ripe bananas and make banana chocolate chip bread. When I first started mixing the dry ingredients I quickly figured out that I hadn't been paying attention to my teaspoons and put way too much of the spices in and ended up throwing that in the garbage and starting over. When I finally finished mixing it the right way I threw it in the oven and everything seemed like it was now running smoothly. When it was time to pull it out of the oven it definately did not look normal! So I pulled out the recipe to check if I had missed anything and good golly, I left the baking soda out! Well, now I know why baking soda is so important! As a result, I was left with no more time to whip up something else and quickly raced to the store and picked up some klondike bars. Who doesn't like icecream, right?! Now that, I don't think I could mess up. Actually, this week, don't put it past me! LOL.

I would have posted pictures but then that would mean I would have had to put an "R" rating on my blog due to disturbing images! Ugggghhhhh, I think I'm putting my spatula to rest for a couple of days until my brain is no longer scattered! This baker needs to pull it together and fast! Valentine's is just around the corner!

WHERE HAS THE TIME GONE?

You know your getting old when you start forgetting the littlest things. Uggghhhh, I am now closer to 40 than I am 30! Yikes!!!!! Anyhoo, I was looking for recent photos I saved about a week ago on our computer so that I could do a little catch up on our blog and I can't find them! I honestly can't remember where I put them. And I bet it was one of those "I'll save it here because it will be easy to find!". Hmmmmmm, apparently, NOT so easy! LOL. Oh well, as a result of my searching I came across photos of my kids when they were smaller. It was so fun to reminisce and so sad to realize my babies are no longer babies any more. They have grown up so much and so fast! So here's a few of my favorites I found.

The above picture I love because Ethan wanted so badly to ride in the bumper cars with the big kids. Obviously, he is way to small and trying his darndest to take a peek. The following picture, don't you think it just reeks of Ethan's personality?! Awwww, he was such a little stinker back then.

These Boots Were Made 4 Walkin ...

I've been wanting a pair of boots for sooooooo long but just haven't found the right pair. All I could find were ones where the heel was too high (good luck walking in those) or to gaudy or wouldn't fit over my calves (that's frustrating), and last of all how crazy expensive they seemed to be. But now that I've lost weight and have smaller calves I couldn't believe how much easier it was for boots to fit. So yayyyyyy for me, the search for the perfect boot has resumed! Just after Christmas I took a stroll into Macy's just to check it out and staring at me were the cutest boots ever! Well, I thought so anyway. Chad not so much. But then again, do you remember this post I did back in March 2009? So, his opinion on footwear doesn't count anymore! Sorry hon, but it's true! LOL.


I was so happy when these $120 boots were on sale for $59.95. But very sad when they didn't have my size! Uggghhhhh, hate it when that happens! Days went by and I just didn't have the time to check out the other Macy's in Boise until a couple of weeks later. The kids had Martin Luther King day off so we decided to head over to the mall and see if they had my size. The only way they agreed to go and behave themselves was for me to promise a trip to Chuck E. Cheese afterwards. Hmmmmm, I really should have thought that one through a little better!

We made it to Macy's and I found the same boot but there was no SALE price on them. So I asked the helper guy if they were on sale for the $59.95 as they had been a couple of weeks ago at the Nampa Macy's. He turned the boot over and seeing the $120 price tag highly doubted that they would be on sale for that much as it would make them 50% off. But being that we were not in Jersey he was more than happy to go and check. All you Jersey friends you know what I'm talking about, don't you?! LOL. After he rang them up he looked at me kind of weird and I couldn't help but ask "So are they on sale?" He just grinned and said, "They are much better than that?" You'll never guess what they rang up for? $29.95! And . . . they had my size!!!!! I was one happy customer and nothing was going to ruin my day! Not even Chuck E. Cheese!

CHRISTMAS IN CANADA

For Christmas we decided to drive the 11 hours to Canada to visit both sets of parents. The drive was actually pretty smooth until we crossed the border and found this!



I'd forgotten just how much snow Southern Alberta can get! On the other hand, Ethan was in heaven! He did a lot of this:


and a lot of this:

Actually, I have a funny story about Ethan and the picture of him in his bathrobe. So, grandpa Wolff had Christmas music playing outside his house and I was in the living room and noticed through the open blinds that Ethan was out on the front sidewalk dancing away in his robe and shooting off his gun to the beat of the music not having a care in the world. I thought it was hilarious. It was kind of "Christmas Vacation" like. Anyhoo, you had to be there to see it. It was pretty funny. Wish we had it on camera. It was sure nice to go home and spend time with family since it had been 4 years since we had been there for the Christmas holidays. We were taken really good care of and it was really sad to say bye at the end of the week. I will add that it wasn't sad to say goodbye to all that snow! Here's some other pictures of our Christmas holiday for you to check out.

*** CLICK ON EACH PICTURE TO ENLARGE ***

EDYN'S FIRST DANCE RECITAL

This is mostly for the grandparents since my mom was begging me awhile back to make sure that I recorded Edyn's dance at the Festival of Trees and post it on here. Since Edyn did a much better job for her actual recital, that was this past Saturday, that's the one I'm going to post. So here's the cutest tap dancer ever! Well, at least her mother thinks so.



After the recital was finished all the kids were up on the stage and the parents were asked to walk up there and get their children.

Edyn was so cute when we handed her her flowers and she kept saying "These are for me? These are for me?!". I love that she loves her dance class and her teacher, Ms. Amber, is amazing!

She is so good with the kids and goes way beyond what you would expect a dance teacher to do. Thank you Ms. Amber, the show was fabulous!

Here's a couple of pictures I took of Edyn today after her dance class and the first one she just wouldn't stand still for and the second picture I just love. Wish I had a cooler background for it instead of our kitchen. LOL.

I'm a Couponer! Is that even a word?!

Thanks to a Relief Society meeting a couple of months ago I had no idea that this even existed! Couponing! I thought it was even funny that it had it's own title. Some great info was shared and at first I was a little timid and very slow at it but here I am three months later and I absolutely love flyers and coupons and finding the next deal! Another funny thing is that whenever we visited my sister she always had coupons pinned up on her cork board and Chad and I were relentless in making fun of her and all her coupons. Anytime anyone made a suggestion of something to do Chad and I were right there to add "Do you have a coupon for it?!". I know, we were cruel! LOL. So to Shaneen, I apologize! I finally see the light!

So without going into too much of all the details of how I do it, because that would probably take all day, I'll just show you a few of my deals that I picked up today at Albertsons. My trip to Albertsons today consisted of three trips to the cashier. Here is my first purchase.

Any guesses to what I paid for it?!

$35.44! What should have been $103.19 only cost me $35.44. I saved $67.75! And the best thing about this purchase was I bought the required items to receive $10 to spend on my next purchase. And your not seeing things, that is 11 boxes of cereal on that table! I love it when I save more than I spend! So of course, I used that $10 on this next purchase.

Any guesses to what I paid for this one?!

$5.63! What should have been $36.48 only cost me $5.63. I saved $30.85! And again, the best thing about this purchase was I bought the required items to receive $10 to spend on my next purchase. And finally, here is what I bought for the third purchase.

(Ooooops - Forgot to include in this picture
the 2 big packages with 24 bottled water each!)

$12.28! What should have been $53.67 only cost me $12.28. I saved $41.39!

So my GRAND TOTAL spent for the day for all of these items was $53.35.
TOTAL SAVINGS = $139.99!
Now, I know I didn't go too much into detail about how I go about this but I do have to say that I spent a good few hours last night making a plan and going back through piles of flyers from the past few months and websites to get the right coupons to stack to get the most for my dollar. But after shopping today and seeing what I brought home it was well worth it! Anyone wanna come over for breakfast tomorrow morning?! Cereal is on the menu! LOL.

Oh Ethan, you are soooo funny!

After Ethan got home from school he and I headed out for some errands. At his latest book fair at school we picked up the book "Diary of a Wimpy kid" which had been highly recommended by one of his good friends. So we decided to try it out. Anyhoo, today while we were out he was talking about it and kept referring to it as "Diarrhea of a Wimpy kid". After he repeated it a couple of times I realized what he was actually saying. So, of course I asked him "Are you saying Diarrhea?". And he looked at me a little puzzled and said "Yes." I tried to correct him and after completely failing numerous times I gave up. It was pretty funny watching Ethan try to assure me that it was in fact "Diarrhea of a Wimpy kid". I wonder if when he has finished the book he'll be upset that diarrhea was never mentioned?! LOL.

Halloween has come and gone!

It wouldn't quite be Halloween if there wasn't a party at the Wolffs! Even though we are very new to the area and only know a handful of people at church, somehow we ended up with a full house. Chad dressed up as Dr. Dreamy, myself as a lady bug, Edyn as a kitty kat and Ethan a zombie. This was for Friday night as Saturday brought a completely different lineup.





We had such a great time that I was glad we had decided to throw one even though we didn't think there would be anyone showing up. We played halloween jeopardy, Halloween sound bites, and pumpkin bowling in the garage just to name a few. Oh, and the food! So yummmmmmy! The food you see was only the half of it! Uggghhhhh, time to hit the gym hard core again.




On Saturday we had a baptism for Ethan's friend in the early afternoon after which we raced home to change into our costumes for trunk-or-treat at the church. Chad was Al Capone (he left his tommy gun in the car), myself as his little sidekick, Ethan a soldier, and Edyn was back into her bumblebee costume. Hmmmmm, I look really weird with a short black bob of a haircut. Thank goodness it's only a wig!




After trunk-or-treat we headed out to the the neighborhood for some good ole' fashioned trick-or-treating and did my kids ever load up! In total they ended up with 12 pounds of candy, and we really weighed it! What am I going to do with 12 pounds of candy?! This morning I hid it but apparently I didn't hide it good enough as it only took seconds for my children to find it. Actually, I'm not really too worried about them, it's me I'm worried about! Hope everyone had a fun Halloween!


The following picture was taken just before we left to go to our ward trunk-or-treat. Edyn had first put on her witch costume and after I had finished her makeup she looked in the mirror and tears started to appear. She kept saying "I'm not cute!". Chad took her outside to take some pictures of her and she just wasn't a happy camper. We took her back inside where she changed into her bumblebee costume and the tears disappeared. I don't know, as I look at this picture she couldn't have been more wrong about her appearance. But then again, I'm a biased mommy.

Experiencing the Fall season in Idaho

We sure have been a busy family this past month making sure we make the most of the fall and Halloween season. Two weekends in a row we made sugar cookies, carved pumpkins and made caramel apples. It was great fun but waaaaayyyyy too much sugar for my family to consume. LOL.

Last night we went to an outdoor Halloween party put on by one our ward members and I must say . . . WOW!!! And that would be an understatement. We showed up at 6pm and not a minute sooner we found ourselves the target of Halloween candy. A small private plane flew over us three times and let a downpour of candy and chocolate fall like rain from the sky. The kids went crazy! How could you not, it was the coolest thing I'd ever seen. Inside one of the barns they had a huge screen set up to play a movie for anyone who would like to sit and watch along with face and pumpkin painting. This sweet little old man was in the corner popping popcorn for anyone who wanted any. I tell ya, they didn't pay him enough for all the droves of people who waited in line for it. Now when I say droves of people I really mean it. There had to have been close to 250 people there. Brave, brave family! Down the road a bit they had a haunted house set up for ones who wanted scary and for those who didn't. Ethan loved it and Chad admitted that Ethan (because Ethan never would) got a little jumpy. Wished I could have been there but Edyn would have nothing to do with it. The weather was nice when we had first arrived but by an hour and a half later the rain and wind came in like a hurricane which cut the party a little short. They ended up canceling the haunted hayride and a few other outdoor games. Unfortunate, but what we were able to do we had a lot of fun. I remember saying that it would be hard to top a Hoboken, New Jersey, Halloween but this is coming pretty darn close. Thanx Palmer Family we thoroughly enjoyed ourselves!

Here's a few pictures of pumpkins that were carved, cookies that were iced and of course the candy plane.

CLICK ON PHOTOS TO ENLARGE

Birthday Boy turns 34!

Dang he's getting old! And of course, Chad would just say "Look who's talking." Still, it's nice to know I'm not alone! Ha, ha. When Chad came home from work on Friday he was greeted by two very excited children who were beside themselves waiting to wish him a Happy Birthday. It was pretty cute to watch how impatient they were. Edyn even spent a half hour making a card for him in which she didn't let go of until daddy got home. We then headed out for dinner which ended up being the longest dining experience ever and realized eating at home probably would have been just as nice. Oh well, maybe we'll rethink that one next year. I tried making this Nutella cake that I had found on one of the baking blogs I follow and it actually turned out really yummy. I always hate it when I try something new to serve to others and it doesn't taste so well. So thank goodness this one worked! So here's a picture of our family while Chad is embracing his age!

HAPPY BIRTHDAY CHAD!
We love and adore you to pieces!