Pampered Chef anyone?

Tonight George & I went to Lori's grand opening as a new Pampered Chef host. But, unfortunately it was a REALLY small showing. Like it was Stacy & me that showed up. I was really grateful that I had decided to go and especially enjoyed that George wanted to come to! We had a fun time, but we have a little problem. It isn't a show until $150 is ordered (before tax) so I'm calling out all my blog readers to see if there is something they've been wanting from Pampered Chef and have a little cash if they can order something (even if it's just a little something). Click here to shop for the show.

If anyone orders $60 worth of product (again before tax) they get a FREE color coded pairing or tomato knife. And you can have it shipped to you.

**The show has to close Monday, June 30th at 12pm CST.

Thank you, thank you, thank you for anyone that is able to help us support Lori in her new career (& supplemental income) so she can be a stay at home mom =]

Go Uncle Denny! =]

Fathers's Day

I was in such a funk for my birthday that I neglected to plan Father's Day for Ben the right way. We did go swimming and grilling at Mom & Dad's house on Saturday for a father's day celebration. It was a BYOM (Meat). And we made Mom Hutto's potato salad for the first time and took that to share. It was received very well. I did get Ben a new skillet for Father's Day. (our other one has been dying a slow death) Our children are so used to Ben cooking dinner that when he comes home Carlise will put her hand on his knee, look up at him and asks very enthusiastically (remember - cheerleader), "Do you want to cook? Daddy, you want to cook?" =]

4 months

Josie is now 4 months old!! She loves to stand, stand, and stand some more. If she's standing she's happy. She thoroughly enjoys the exersaucer and her paci. And she's now attached to her bear lovey. she like to rub it against her face when she's going to sleep and chew on it when she's hungry. She laughs and smiles when Carlise starts talking to her in that baby talk voice she uses. She doesn't quite like Wesley to get close, but that's cause he ends up hurting her somehow while trying to interact with her. He tries, just doesn't know his strength and is lacking in grace but he's only 19 months. =]

the challenge

So my SIL Elizabeth extended this challenge for those that wanted to change the way their bodies are to become healthier individual to join together and help motivate one another. I accepted because I've had this desire for a few years, but about the time I start feeling it I end up preggo and sick. So I'm actually starting it finally. We're using the 12 second sequence by Jorge Cruise he's also the creator of 8 minutes in the morning. I really like him and his workouts. Anyway, I've created a private blog of my attempt/progress with this workout. I sent e-mails to those who I thought would be interested in supporting me in this challenge. But I don't have everyone's e-mails so if you want to come and join in the support group leave me a comment with your e-mail. I moderate my comments, so I won't publish them where they are exposed on the internet for everyone to see. Same reason my challenge blog is private. =]

Edit: There are now links so you can see what I'm talking about. =]

off to a good start

well, it's my 25th birthday today. I've got the birthday blahs. it just doesn't feel like a celebration. oh well, maybe it'll get better. It's off to a good start though. Josie slept through the night giving me 9 hours of sleep. =]

yay for Lori

my friend Lori finally started a blog. Ok, well she had a blog but she forgot all her log-in information and the last time she'd made an entry was before she even got engaged. She's been married, and had a kid since then. So anyway, go check it out. leave comments and encourage her to blog some more on her new blog. check out the Looney Lopez'.

a tale of two cakes

ok, so you know its bad when the people you talk to on the phone ask when you're going to post pictures of Carlise's birthday cake. ok, so there are two cakes. funny story about that. It says to make your favorite two layer cake recipe or mix. I've never baked a 2 layer cake so I call Anna right before she goes bed and ask how many boxes of cake mix do you need for a 2 layer cake. She tells me 2. So we bought two boxes of cake mix and proceeded to mix them up & pour them in the pan which made it very full. So full that once it was in the oven it started to bubble and rise over the edges and fall on the element. And start a fire. Now Ben was in the kitchen when this happened and I was nursing Josie in the living room. I've already dealt with a fire from a cake issue in the oven (another story). So he gets the fire situation taken care of and removes the pan while I make a phone call to Anna again. I ask so how many boxes of cake mix do you need for a 2 layer cake? She replies 2 (again, but i called her in the middle of a nap so sleep deprivation is involved again as well). then I tell her what happened and she busts out laughing and apologizes. Now it wasn't Anna's fault had either of us bothered to read the whole box, we would've realized that. So, we had 2 cakes. =]

Breast Cancer awareness

So my friend Carrie is joining the 3-day walk for breast cancer research. I've wanted to do one of those for years but they don't hold one close enough to me. I bought this diaper in April for Mothers Day. Fits Josie perfectly & $5 went towards the designer's goal for the 3-day walk she's participating in. Sorry Carrie it was before you started raising funds. So, if you have $5, $10, or even $2 (maybe sitting in paypal) you can donate towards breast cancer research, education, screening, & treatment please donate toward Carrie's goal.

Memorial Day weekend

Instead of the usual grilling and swimming my loving Husband arranged a lunch date with my Mom & sister JaNae and a little window shopping too. We had lunch at Olive Garden. We got the soup, salad & breadsticks meal because really is there anything else better there? We love that stuff! anywho i didn't take pictures of the food, but i did get some of us. Maybe one day i'll be brave enough to ask a stranger to take a picture for me so everyone can be in it.

long lost brother & sister in law

ok, so not lost as much as just wasn't able to make it to see them in over a year. We happened to drive to Mom's one saturday last month kinda last minute and we're very glad we did. Ian & Jessica were there!!! He had told Mom but with the huge project they had that day she forgot and so none of us siblings knew until he got there and Mom called. It was so great to see them and visit. The kids absolutely adored the attention. I was able to get a picture of Jessica & Josie! And they were able to come by our house after a wedding they attended in our town. So i finally gave Ian his spinning spice rack (they are wonderful!!) and Jessica some fabulous shoes.

alas poor Hila

Alright so I mostly take pictures of food for my fellow foodie Hila. I know she thinks it's dumb sometimes when she posts pictures of her food. But I love it. I love food and can appreciate all the different presentations and try to appreciate all the tastes. Anywho, so I had like 20 pictures of food that I was going to post for Hila, but alas they are with those 8 months of missing pictures that will never be seen again because they were accidentally erased and I did not back them up on the storage drive. So Hila, I'm sorry. I had pictures of 3 different salads that we had at a R.S. Terrific Tuesday. Even pictures of all the sisters eating their salads and our "chef". Really cute betty crocker-ish pictures. But, they're gone. I also had various get together meals especially those involving steak. =] Is it sad when we do things for the blog? I went to sit down to my Mother's Day meal and I stopped and grabbed the camera to take a picture for Hila. or is there anyone else that enjoys these types of pictures? Oooh, probably all the Ahroon girls, too.So here is my Mothers' Day dinner. One steak, butter and herb angel hair pasta and a salad. Yum! Oh and that was only half of my steak. =]

Josie now mastering

Josie is now blowing bubbles. Saying Ahhhh noises. She has mastered rolling over from her tummy to her back. So cute! =]

and she is now sucking her thumb- she found it all by herself. (i was a thumbsucker, too.) She has also started accepting a paci on occasion. Mostly when it's time for bed. =] Her motto: have thumb, will sleep. Anywhere. this is the changing table on the pack n play while I went to take care of Carlise & Wesley real quick.

Watch Carlise grow-up

and don't pay attention that there are 8 months of pictures that I just discovered are missing!!

Edit: added some pics that Mom had =]

Our SuperPrincess

Our oldest turns 3 today. As I sit here reflecting on all the different aspects of Carlise I can't help but laugh and smile. Which leads me to realize that even though the good, sweet, happy moments definitely outnumber the bad I find I allow myself to keep all the emotions from the bad moments and often let them overshadow the good parts of everyday. I must work on that. Anywho, through a link on Abby's blog I found this site for Ava. Reading it definitely made me appreciate our princesses even more. Now to my list

Living with Carlise is sometimes like living with a over enthusiastic cheerleader. She loves to go to stores. Specific requests are Wal-Mart, Sam's, & Target. The way she says "milk" is hilarious to her Daddy. so much so that he asks her to say it almost daily. Carlise loves dresses! She asks to wear one everyday. But she loves to be "nakie" even more and quickly strips down once we've gotten home from being out. There is a funny voice she uses when talking to Josie. It's her imitation of my baby talk voice.

darn

We had some local elections today. Ben went this morning before work. I on the other hand completely forgot until it was 7:30pm. The polls closed at 7pm. I am a ninny! I can't believe I forgot! Of course it could've been because the meeting I had at my house that was supposed to be from 10:30-11:30 last a lot longer and it was 2 before everyone went home. =]