Culinary Creations

If you know me well and/or lived with me in college you know I'm not an extravagant chef. My standard meals consisted of some kind of meat plus a side dish with instructions saying "just add water and butter". I'm still not amazing in the kitchen. I've always wanted the apron that said "I kiss better than I cook". But lately I've done some yummy things. I thought I'd share.

Stuffed Peppers
easy and built in portion control

chocolate dipped pretzels and strawberries for fun
*with chocolate sprinkles

Homemade pepperoni pizza

Homemade veggie delight pizza
spinach, fresh tomato, green pepper, & onion

Valentine's Pancake Breakfast

Lastly my specialty,

Stuffed Pork Chops
cut pocket in thick pork chop or
layer homemade stuffing on top
a great change of pace!

Cat catcher

Pure Bliss!

There are 3 reasons my kiddos are on the move at such a young age, their names are Tink, Natasha, and Midnight. Max loves them! This is Tink, he's the only one that is always nice and will actually allow actions such as this to happen. The other two keep their distance at all times. More interestingly he's also our only male cat but he's a marshmallow and puts up with it. Thanks Tink!

Moments

Moments, that is what all those photos capture, just a single moment in time. They tell such stories. Some help us remember. Others are just meant to bring a smile. Here are a few moments in our lives recently.

Lily captured these two shots of Max squirming off my lap trying to avoid a diaper change.

Franklin Institute Trip with my sister and her kids

Max's mohawk

Lily riding her scooter, she calls it her motorcycle :) And she always chooses to wear a helmet!

Max learns about computers very early in life.

Lily wants to be just like Grandma Joy.

She "washed" her hair in the sink.

Lily's changing her dolls diaper.
I don't know what the egg beater is for...

perfect form

don't you wear a tutu while you bake?

I cannot resist his smile!

snuggles with Pop

my shopping buddies. Lily loves it,

Max not so much...a typical male response.

Lilia's Cute Haircut

Lilia's hair is a constant battle. She's a hair twirler and creates knots in it when she's tired. She doesn't like keeping bows in it, if she allows bows in it as soon as we're on our way home she rips them out with a handful of hair. This a before picture with her typical crazy flighty hair.

This is another before picture. If her hair would only stay this curly I would never cut it. When wet or with some product it curls beautifully but she rolls around and gets it too static-full to keep it curly.
I was cutting my sister and her kids' hair and Lilia jumped up in the chair and said it was her turn...so I took advantage of the opportunity.


Please forgive my appearance and that of the kitchen behind me. Notice how long it combs out to in the back.
Here is her profile afterward. She has a cute bob now!And here is our adorable pixie who requires no bows! She's always been beautiful and now her hair is not a concern for her or me.

He's my forever Valentine!

"So I hear you're pretty good at cuddling?"
That's how it all began.
19 months later we were married.
7 years and 2 cute kiddos later find us here,

loving life and loving each other!

I couldn't wait to kiss him then,

and not much has changed since!

We love and adore our Lily Sue Bug!

We love and adore our Mr. Max!

WE TRULY ARE A HAPPY FAMILY!

Happy Valentine's Day!

Christmas in a flash

My camera had over 500 photos from Christmas vacation. So I decided to show 1% of that. Here it is....
We went to Enoch, Utah and spent lots of time with family. We all got sick but then we all got better and had fun! Lily became a puzzle master!

We had lots of family time and loved it! David's big gift was a Sony Walkman. My big gifts from him were a watch and a hand-held sewing machine.

Max loved his 1st Christmas! He only ripped paper on one gift but he drooled on the presents a lot! He pushed things all over the house to practice walking and he had 2 ear infections right in a row, poor baby. He and I spent an evening in the ER-his ears, I had strep.
Santa was good to the kids. Lily's big gifts were Sleeping Beauty, a duck game, and a princess cd player. Max got lots of fun toys but mostly just wanted to eat the wrapping paper and boxes.
NJ got pummeled with snow while we were gone. this was taken a few days before we left for Utah. Lily wanted to help. We had warm days in the 50s and played outside without coats while out there and then we had days of 2 degree weather with lots of snow and sledding.

It was a wonderful holiday visiting with lots of family! We met the two newest Brough babies and spent a few days up in Salt Lake visiting my family. And to end it all our flight home was canceled due to weather and we couldn't leave for another 3 days. thankfully we found out before we left for the airport and had lovely family to stay with. If we saw you on our travels it was wonderful! If we missed you, we're sorry, we still love you!

Santa came twice this year!

We got to celebrate Christmas twice! Santa knew we were heading out to visit family in Utah so he agreed to stop by both places. We've been very nice in our house :)
Christmas Eve before opening our new pj's


brotherly/sisterly love is sometimes rough and painful...

New jammies

Mom and Dad gave me my big gift that night! My new friend, Violet!
Christmas morning brought lots of fun things!

Max thought his toys were tasty

Lily loves Mr. and Mrs Potato Head and her microphone cd player from Santa

her umbrella and new suitcase were big hits too!




CHRISTMAS AGAIN....

Lily loved her new game from Santa and Sleeping Beauty doll. But she immediately asked where the prince was. when I told her I didn't think she had one she raced downstairs and found a prince and played with the two of them for 30 mins before we had to call her back to open more gifts.
Dave opening his big gift from me. It was an MP3 player. He was really surprised!
Max finally interested in playing with some of his toys. He kept leaving his toys to check out what everyone else got.

Max and Daddy on his 1st ChristmasLily with Daddy on her 1st Christmas

All three are cuties!

Happy 1st Christmas Max!


We all had a wonderful Christmas! We are so blessed to have so many gifts and loved ones. We hope the Spirit of the Lord was with you while you celebrated.