The year is ending

Boy this year went by fast didn't it?! Almost 2012 already, which means it's almost the twins' first birthday! And we are getting past the crazy holiday months into the slower cold months, so hopefully life will go a bit slower. Don't need to worry about gift ideas for weddings, Christmas, or birthdays (besides the babies, which will be easy) for a while, though next year I plan to get started on Christmas a lot earlier than I did this year! But for now I'm not even going to think about it, just going to enjoy a break from major holidays.

Crunchmaster Winner!

Thank you to those who entered the giveaway for the Crunchmaster White Cheddar Multi-Grain Crackers. Using random.org the winner is...

#1 Blair! Congrats Blair, I will be contacting you to get your information to send your prize.

Thank you all and stayed tuned for some upcoming giveaways!

Getting close

4 days until Christmas!!! You can tell by the piles of wrapped presents in my room, the tree with the lights and garland pulled off the bottom branches and the tree skirt all askew, and the empty bank account. Yep, Christmas is definitely close! I'm excited for the kids mostly, it's just so much fun watching them enjoy Christmas morning. I'm also interested to see what Hubby got me. He's been working on something in the garage, pretty sure it's not amish furniture, and there are a few other boxes with my name on them that I have no idea what they are. I'm not completely ready though. Waiting on a package so I can finish up some family gift baskets and I need to make the boys' PJ pants. Other than that I think we are done. :)

Crunchmasters Multi-grain Crackers Review and Giveaway!

I had the great opportunity to review some nutritious, healthy crackers by Crunchmaster, provided courtesy of Moms Meet.

The Crunchmaster Multi-Grain Crackers come in 3 delicious flavors: Sea Salt, White Cheddar, and Roasted Vegetable. Now, I must say I am not really a cracker person. Especially the healthy ones, haha. The never have liked the texture of wheat crackers, or the flavor. I was thinking these crackers would be similar. But the first thing I noticed is they lacked that wheat-y texture because, ta-da: no wheat! That's right, these crackers are wheat- and gluten-free. Great for people who want healthy, tasty crackers but can't eat gluten. Instead they are made from a blend of pure, California brown rice, stone-ground corn, oat fiber, and a four seed blend (they also made a Multi-Seed Cracker you may want to check out). Also, they didn't crumble wheatily (not a word? oh well!) which is nice. Instead these oven baked crackers are very crisp and solid, a bit harder than I expected; they don't leave tons of tiny crumbs with every bite.

Now for the taste. For starters, I did not even try the White Cheddar flavor. I just have never liked cheese flavored products, especially cheese crackers, yuck! So I left those to the kids, who had no problem with being my taste-testers. My two older boys ate some and thought they were too hard, but my 3-year old loved them. For the next few days I kept finding him smuggling a bag of crackers into the family room to snack on while watching cartoons. Hubby also tried them and said they were about the same as any other healthy cracker to him, good but nothing exciting. I headed first for the Roasted Vegetable. These crackers have some major taste, a lot more flavorful than I was thinking they would be. In my opinion it was actually a bit much, but I bet they would be amazing with a nice cream cheese spread or dip, which I sadly did not have on hand to try them with. Then I tried the Sea Salt. This was more to my taste; not as much flavor to deal with (guess I'm a wimp when it comes to strong flavor lol). They tasted kind of like healthy, crunchier tortilla chips. I love a nice salty snack, like popcorn or chips, so these are something I could actually see myself snacking on. They would also probably taste good with a spread or maybe cheese and meat on top.

I also shared some bags of crackers with ladies in my twin moms group, and they were so excited to try them out.

Crunchmaster Multi-Grain Crackers are a great source of fiber and whole grains, use natural ingredients, and are free from cholesterol and saturated fats. A nice healthy snack that you can enjoy as is or with a tasty spread or dip. You can learn more about them at the Crunchmaster website and Facebook page. You can buy them at many major retailers, including WalMart, Kroger, Meijer, and many more.

Would you like a chance to win a case (12 bags) of Crunchmaster White Cheddar Multi-Grain Crackers? Well, one lucky reader will!

To enter simply visit the Crunchmaster website and comment here to let me know what other product they have that you think sounds good.

This contest will end Tuesday December 20th at 10pm EST. Contest open only to U.S. residents. Make sure there is a way to contact you from your profile or leave your email in the comment.

*Disclaimer: I received this product for free from the sponsor of the Moms MeetSM program, May Media Group LLC, who received it directly from the manufacturer. As a Moms MeetSM blogger, I agreed to use this product and post my opinion on my blog. My
opinions do not necessarily reflect the opinions of May Media Group LLC or the manufacturer of the product.*

New look

Anyone notice the changes to my blog? A few weeks ago evidently the host for my previous blog template stopped doing them so I had to find a new one. If I had time I would just make my own, but for now I'll go with whatever free cute templates I can find. Thought this one was fun and girly. The more boys I have the more I feel like surrounding myself with girly things to counteract it lol. :D

Put a ring on it

A few days ago, one of my Facebook friends was asking if anyone else would be sad if they had to get a new wedding ring because it wasn't the original one they put on when married. I said I would be sad. I love my ring and even if I got an exact copy of it, it wouldn't have the same meaning as the one I've been wearing for over 8 years. I'm not sure if my Hubby feels the same. He doesn't have a fancy ring like the triton wedding bands, it's a simple band but I had it engraved on the inside and I still like to see it. :) I've never seen the reason to buy new rings for anniversaries and such, my wedding ring is perfect to me. Of course, I'm not really that into jewelry so it's pretty much the only jewelry I wear regularly. I only take it off if I'm kneading bread or making meatloaf or other stuff with lots of raw meat, and then my hand feels so weird not to have my ring on. I'm hoping this ring lasts a nice long time.

Gardening

Brr, it's getting cold! I wish we could just bypass winter and head straight into spring. Though it's nice not to have to worry about the garden for a few months. It got a little neglected this year due to the babies, though we did get more tomatoes than usual. I should have gotten the area all cleaned out and composted and stuff before it got cold, but now it's too cold for me to want to go out, so it'll have to wait until it warms up again. I would love to have a rotating composter to put our leaves and stuff in to use for the garden. I have a compost box but it's a pain. I think next year I'll probably stick to mostly tomatoes again. I don't have much luck with anything else lol. I hardly even got any peas this year, which I normally don't have a problem with. I'm really not that great with gardens lol, but it's worth it if I at least get a few fresh tomatoes. :)

Halloween!

Thought it was about time to put up some cute pictures. So here we go with Halloween! We had a great Halloween. The 28th we went to Hubby's work party where the boys got to trick or treat around the office. The 29th we had a Halloween party and trunk or treat with my moms of twins club. And then Halloween the boys had their school costume parades and Hubby took the older 3 trick or treating that night while I stayed home with the babies to hand out candy. A fun weekend, but way too much candy! I actually made some of the costumes this year because I didn't want to go buy any and Jason and Jakey wanted to be something we didn't already have costumes for. Jason was a wizard, I let him pick out the material. Jakey was a ghost. Nathan was excited to wear one of the older boys' old Mario costume. And the babies were gnomes. I just made their hats and belts, the rest was just clothes we had.

At Hubby's work party. Nathan would not stop looking at the talking butler thing lol.


The school costume parade.



We carved pumpkins the Friday before. Hubby's has Idaho and #1, mine is the stack of pumpkins with BOO and a ghost, we let Jason and Jakey design what they wanted theirs to look like so Jason's is the 4-eyed, 2-nosed pumpkin, and Jakey's funny shaped pumpkin got 2 faces. Nathan's had a Blue's Clues pawprint, and for the babies we just did I and C.

LOL I just realized I posted the pumpkins a few posts down already. Seriously my memory stinks!

Adjustments needed

My back has been killing me lately. I often get ribs out of place which sends shooting pain through my back. It sucks when I'm holding babies and suddenly feel like I'm being stabbed. It wasn't so bad when we had chiropractors covered by insurance, but our new insurance doesn't cover it. It's not bad enough to need laser back surgery or anything, but an occasional adjustment would be nice. I also get migraines when my neck gets out of place, and having 2 babies to hold and nurse makes that happen more from the extra pressure and strain across my upper back. I always love getting into my nice soft bed at night and stretching out, feels so good. I sleep pretty good too (besides waking to feed babies) because my bed is so comfortable and relaxing after a day with the kids.

Getting educated

I'm so glad I have such a wonderful husband. He has always been extremely helpful with the house and kids, but since I started school he has taken on even more. He's willing to work harder taking care of things at home so that I can finish my education so that if I ever need to work I'll have more available to me than fast food, call centers, or Baggage Porter Jobs. Not that those are bad, I've done a few of those jobs to supplement our income at times, but if my husband ever was unable to get work we'd need something that pays more than minimum wage. Which will hopefully never be an issue *knock on wood*. In a year and a half I should be done with my Associate's degree, and 2 years from that I could have my Bachelor's.

Pumpkins

This year we had a lot of pumpkins to carve. First, our family grew by two members and we like to have pumpkins even for the babies, and second we got 2 free pumpkins at a party last week. So 9 pumpkins and since we don't trust the kids with knives that meant that Hubby and I had to carve all those pumpkins. Jason and Jakey were in charge of cleaning out the guts and separating the seeds so I could try roasting them. Hubby did the most carving. I wish we had some actual pumpkin carving tools, or maybe box cutters would work better than steak knives. Both of us had sore hands by the time we were done but they turned out good. We let Jason and Jakey design the faces on their pumpkins. Nathan's is a Blue's Clue's pawprint because he loves that show. The babies' just have I and C. Hubby's is the great Idaho #1 one and mine is the BOO tower with a ghost on one side.

Finding time to sew

I've been busy the last week, like always lol. But I finally had to get out my sewing machine again to make some costumes for my boys. I don't get a lot of chance to sew lately, but I didn't want to go spend money on costumes this year. Jason wanted to be a wizard, Jakey wanted to be a ghost, Nathan is luckily to young to really care what he is so he got to wear a Mario costume we already had, and I made the babies garden gnomes. So cute. I'll have to get a good pic of all of them together when they are dressed up tomorrow. I have a bunch of other projects on my sewing list but I don't see myself getting the time to do them any time soon. I do need to make a baby shower gift for a friend before Wednesday. Hopefully I can find time for that. I normally buy baby shower gifts, and these ones from berries.com look so cute, because I normally run out of time to make something. We'll see what I have time for this week!

MyMemories Winner!

Thank you to those who entered the MyMemories Suite scrapbook software giveaway! We have a lucky winner chosen by random.org...

#5 is Tiffany H! Congratulations! I will be contacting you on how to redeem your prize.

If you didn't win you can still order this software and get $10 off using the code STMMMS6534, which also gives you $10 off anything else at mymemories.com.

Are you ready for some football?

I don't watch a lot of TV. For one, usually if it's on the kids have cartoons on, and secondly, I just have other things to do with my time. But now that it's football time that's what is on our TV every Sunday. We don't have cable or satellite but we have one of those digital antennas for tv and so we watch the regular broadcast games. We are Patriots fans and they've been doing good so far this year. I never really cared for watching football before I met Hubby but now I love it. :)

Fall break is not nearly long enough

The weekends go by way too quickly these days. Last weekend, Thursday through Saturday, was Fall Break from school for me so I didn't have class Thursday or Saturday and it went by so fast. This week I have a couple papers to get done for my culture class Thursday so I need to get those done. I've been feeling a bit overwhelmed lately with school and appointments and life. When I get a day off I like to just lounge around and do nothing. I'd love some comfy nursing scrubs to relax in, I don't really have a lot of lounging clothes. But being lazy doesn't help because then the housework piles up. I think I'd be able to handle everything better if I was able to sleep all night and feel rested, but the babies still wake up often. But I know that won't last forever so I just live with it. And I don't mind some nights, sitting there in the dark nursing Isaac, or having Caleb cuddled up next to me, I know I will miss this time when they are so cute and little and dependent on me.

MyMemories Suite Scrapbooking Software Review and GIVEAWAY!!!

I've never been much of a scrapbooker, I just don't have the time or will to come up with all the cute little layouts myself. Plus I never print out pictures, which makes it a little harder lol. But I do think digital scrapbooking is cool. I love creating photo gifts, like calendars and photo books, for the grandparents for Christmas. I know a few of you readers are into the digital scrapbooking also, so I'm sure you'll be interesting in what I'm about to say.

I was asked to review the MyMemories Suite scrapbooking software, award winning digital scrapbook software rated #1 by Amazon. I was so excited to get it and see what cool things it could do. I was not disappointed. My favorite part is how many cute layouts they have available for free to use with the software. Since design is not really my area of expertise, I rely on other people to be creative for me lol. They have templates for boys, girls, holidays, birthdays, outdoors, babies, and more.

The next best thing is how easy it is to pop in your pictures. Just click the add picture button, upload your picture, and drop it where you want it. You can also change around the picture and text elements if you want, adding shapes, word art, embellishments, etc. So you are able to personalize the pre-made templates as much or as little as you want.

Once you are done creating an album you can choose to display it as a calendar, video, photo album, and more. You have the option to upload it online and order a printed version of what you want, share the album, or you can print it out yourself.

I am loving the MyMemories Suite software and hopefully I will be able to get some time to create some more fun albums and try out all the cool little features they offer.

As a special for all of my readers, you can use this code to receive a $10 discount off the purchase of the MyMemories Suite Scrapbook software and a $10 coupon for the MyMemories.com store - $20 value! Just enter STMMMS4082 when ordering.


GIVEAWAY!!!
One lucky reader will win the MyMemories Suite scrapbook software! Simply go to MyMemories.com and come back and comment on which digital scrapbooking kit is your favorite.

Extra Entries: (leave a comment for each entry)
-Like MyMemories on Facebook
-Follow MyMemories on Twitter

Giveaway will end Monday, October 17th at 10pm MST. Winner will be determined using Random.org.

*I received a free copy of the MyMemories Suite software to review and give my own honest opinion.

And the winner is...

I almost forgot to post a winner for last week's giveaway for the Grime Guard Foaming Glass Cleaner! Better late than never!

Congratulations Melissa! I will be contacting you about getting your prize to you!

Upcycled Dress!

My youngest brother is getting married today! And that means I had to find a dress to wear. Not normally a problem except their colors were baby blue and pastel pink, and I don't happen to have anything in either color lol. But I then remembered I have a hand-me-down maternity dress that would work. Well, sorta. The color was about right, but it was quite obviously a maternity dress. So, taking some inspirations from New Dress a Day, I decided to upcycle the dress into a cute non-maternity dress! I even went so far as to make it something I could nurse in. The hardest part was finding time to make all the alterations. It's not perfect, but actually came out pretty much like I'd hoped. If I'd had more time I could have made a few more adjustments, but it will do. There is a bit of greenish stain on the shoulders (baby spit up is my guess, and Oxiclean didn't help), but considering I didn't notice them until the 3rd time I put it on, hopefully nobody else will either lol. So here we go:

I shortened the length, added some elastic and darts to bring it in around the middle, trimmed with some lace for the ties, and made it so the top front can be moved up and an elastic-y chest flap can be moved to nurse.

Also, my 5-yr old Jakey is the ring bearer and since I don't know if they had a tie or anything for him to match the wedding party, I whipped up this cute little blue bow tie.

Stanley Home Products Review and GIVEAWAY!!!

I was given the opportunity to review some cleaning products from Stanley Home Products, their Glass Cleaner Foaming Spray and Degreaser. Stanley Home has been providing quality cleaners for 70 years. They provide great products at affordable prices, as well as offer home-based jobs for Customer Representatives who want the freedom to work at home for a good company.

Grime Guard Glass Cleaner Foaming Spray

From their site: "GrimeGuard™ provides an invisible shield to guard against accumulated dirt and repel water spot build-up. This protective shield keeps surfaces cleaner longer and makes on-going cleaning, quick, and easy. Plus, the foaming spray is non-streaking and quick drying!"

I tested the glass cleaner out on my main floor bathroom. Since this is the bathroom my children use (and abuse) the most it gets pretty dirty. The mirror was streaked with a soapy mess and the faucet was covered in soap, fingerprints, and water spots. I sprayed on the cleaner and was amazed at how easily it wiped all of it right off. With my normal cleaner I usually need a bit more scrubbing and occasionally a reapplication of cleaner, but the Foaming Spray worked with very little effort for a spotless mirror and shiny faucet.

Degreaser Concentrate
"Concentrated to work hard: Dissolves grease in seconds on cookware, countertops, broilers, dishes, tools, and walls - wherever grease build-up is a problem."

I was really excited to try out the degreaser. From working fast-food years ago I know how important a good degreaser is. I knew exactly what I was going to try it on first- my stove top. My poor stove does not get cleaned as often as it should, and so it had quite the buildup of caked on food and grease. I even decided I should tackle the stove hood while I was at it. I hate the greasy dust that builds up on that thing.

So I took off the burner spider cover things (hm, wonder what they are actually called?) and soaked them in some of the degreaser and hot water. Then I put a few tsps of Degreaser in a bowl of hot water and wiped down the whole stove top with it then let it sit for 5 minutes, or it was supposed to be 5 minutes but the babies woke up and needed fed and eventually I got back to my stove about an hour later lol. Once I got some fresh hot water and degreaser I took my sponge and wiped down the hood. Now typically when I clean the hood it take a lot of work and frustration. But this time most of the greasy dust came right up, then I just had to go over it a few more times to scrub the really set in stuff.

The stove took a bit more work because of how dirty I'd let it get. I don't think the degreaser made the job much easier or quicker than how I normally do it with dishsoap, but it worked pretty well. And the burner covers cleaned up really well after soaking. My stove looks so much better, which is great because I have a group of ladies coming to my house to do some cooking Saturday and it would have been embarrassing for them to see it as it was.


Overall, I am extremely happy with both products, especially the glass cleaner. And now for the fun part- a GIVEAWAY!!!

GIVEAWAY
One lucky reader can win a can of the Grime Guard Glass Cleaner Foaming Spray! Simply comment below telling me what your least favorite household chore is to enter. For an extra entry, go to the Stanley Home Products website and tell me which product other than these two you could use the most. This contest will end Saturday, October 8th, 2011 at 8pm MST. Open to U.S. residents.

*I received a bottle of each product, and an extra bottle of glass cleaner, free of charge to review and giveaway. All opinions given are my own honest opinions of the products.*

Stop the train...

...I want to get off! I seriously feel like life is going by too fast to keep up. My house is a mess, I can barely keep things straight with the boys' school, college, appointments, kids, etc, and I'm just exhausted because I haven't had a good night's rest in who knows how long. I love my life and my kids, and actually enjoy my college classes, but I just need everything to freeze for a few days so I can catch my breath! We went out to eat tonight, and after dinner I noticed Jason's shorts were inside out. His blue plaid shorts that he was wearing with a tan and orange striped shirt. Oh yeah, he's the height of fashion! I've given up on caring if they're wearing carhartt pants with a long sleeve shirt in 80* weather, or if anything matches, or if they've been wearing the same outfit for 3 days (ok, maybe not that last one, I try to notice if they haven't changed their clothes when I tell them to lol). As long as everyone is fed, dressed, gets to bed before midnight and is reasonably clean I count it a successful day.
I know this crazy time won't last forever. Eventually I will be done with school. Eventually the babies will sleep through the night. And eventually I will get around to the million chores I'm slacking at. But for now I'm in triage, taking care of what needs to be done most first. My kids are loved, the babies are happy and healthy, and the boys and I are doing well in school. When I have a free minute I prefer to spend it relaxing with my boys instead of making the house spotless. And I'm lucky to have an amazing husband who helps me with the house and kids, picking up my slack. One day I'll have an empty clean house and wish for the days when I had a full messy house. :)
"Quiet down cobwebs, dust go to sleep. I'm rocking my baby, and babies don't keep."

Plagiocephaly Helmet

I don't know if I've mentioned Isaac's helmet on here? About a month ago he got a helmet to improve his plagiocephaly, a flat spot on the back right side of his head. It has already made a big difference and he should only need it for a few months.

Isn't he just a cute little guy? It doesn't really bother him either. It does get pretty sweaty and stinky though, so when he gets to have it off for an hour a day we wipe down his head and the helmet. And luckily our insurance covered it as durable medical equipment, I've heard a lot of people who had to pay out of pocket, and those things are expensive! I'm so used to seeing him with it on that he looks so different when he has it off and you can see his hair better and everything. It'll be nice when he's all done with it, but I'm glad we were able to get it for him so he wouldn't have a misshapen head the rest of his life.

Babyproof

I'm on a few messageboards with women who have babies the age of my twins and now that our babies are all around 7-8 months old and getting mobile there have been many discussions about babyproofing. I've gone through 3 other kids so we have the outlet covers, baby gates, and cabinet locks pretty well covered. One thing I mentioned to some of those first time moms is something I think gets overlooked a lot- securing furniture. TVs that don't have tv mounts on the wall like ours should be connected to the wall, I know you can buy safety straps that connect the TV to the wall. Also dressers, entertainment centers, book cases, curio cabinets, etc should all be secured to the wall at a stud. Once those babies start pulling up on things you want what they are grabbing to be as sturdy as possible with no chance of it falling on them. Cords should be out of the way too so they can't pull lamps, candle warmers, CD players, etc down on them. My boys are now army crawling around the house so it's time for me to make sure things are safe by getting some cords tucked away, replacing a few outlet covers, and getting out the gates.

At your fingertips

I often think about what the Internet was like when I first started using it back when I was like 12. The main browser was Netscape Navigator, and you had to pay for it because Internet Explorer at the time sucked (at the time? doesn't it still? lol). There wasn't a whole lot of information on everything out there, it took forever to find stuff because of the slow dial up connection, and there were not many social networking sites. Nowadays everything is on the Internet. You want a new outfit? Look up wet seal coupons. Need help with your homework? Look it up! (I've been doing that lately with my HTML class). Movie times, local news, random tidbits of information. It's all on the Internet, along with all the people you want to talk with. Pretty cool for someone who remembers life without it.

Shop Class

One of my favorite classes in junior high was shop. I totally loved working with tools and making stuff. I still do like to make stuff, and I'm pretty much the handy one around here, except when it comes to power saws. In junior high I wasn't afraid of band saw blades or circular saws or anything. It was so cool to get to use them. But now I've gotten wimpy lol. I let Hubby handle the sharp stuff. I think having kids has made me soft, plus I worry about them getting hurt by anything. And I think part of it is not having a designated "shop" area, it doesn't feel like I have a safe place to use those kind of tools. We have a work bench in the garage but it's pretty messy and I wish we had some nice strong clamps for when we need to saw stuff, usually I'm acting as a human clamp while Hubby saws lol.

Poor little bloggy

So, I started Fall semester of school about a month ago and things have gotten even more sporadic for my poor blog. It's been so neglected. I would love to post more about the cute things my kids do, pictures of them, and about life in general, but I'm just exhausted these days. The babies still don't sleep well at night, I feel like I'm getting more behind on housework every day, and having school 3 nights and 1 morning a week is messing with when I can schedule and do other things. I don't mind school, in fact I really am enjoying my classes (and if you've been reading this blog for a while you know that normally I HATE school), I've just had to let less important things slide for a bit, like my little blog here. Poor thing, I want to pet it and say, "It's okay little bloggy, I still love you." But that would be weird.

Slim These Days

I hear every day that jobs are hard to come by. People in our neighborhood have been laid off and it seems everyone is scrambling for any job they can get. I'm not sure what they define as a job. There are jobs like Convention Services/Events Staff Jobs, which are good for paying bills, but I'm not sure how permanent they are. Then there are jobs that require degrees. These jobs seem to be in bigger supply. When I think of a job, I think of something that can be permanent and steady. We need more of these jobs.

First Day of School

Arg, one of these days life will slow down right?! No? Yeah, didn't think so. :P

OK, so first day of school pictures! Jason started first grade this year and Jakey started Kindergarten. At first it was so weird having Jason gone all day. He was so thrilled to get to take lunch with him. We didn't do much back to school shopping. They didn't really need a lot. They have enough clothes (though come colder weather we may have to buy some more pants) and they didn't have any supply lists to buy. Jason needed some new shoes so we got him some cheap sandals. When it gets cooler we will need to get some easy spirit sneakers or something cuz I think his tennis shoes are getting snug. We also got him a lunch box and a few basic school supplies. Jakey didn't need anything, though he might also need some new shoes by the time it's cold out. Anyway, enough chatter, here's my cuties on their first day of school.

Jason

Jacob

Oopsie

Oops, guess I lied in my last post. Said I'd be back soon with pics and stuff and here it is 3 weeks later. At least I'm not letting anybody down since hardly anybody even reads my blog lol, don't have to worry to much about my traffic like sites such as www.wholesaleinsurance.net do. I do have pictures of the boys' first days of school, and I will try to get them posted in a little while. I have 2 fussy babies who need to go down for naps, then I should have time for a few updates.

Be back soon, maybe

Yikes, keep getting behind! Days are flying by and before I know it weeks have passed since I last blogged. I think I need a time advance, like those cash advances, borrow some extra time now to get caught up in life. Of course I don't know how you could pay back borrowed time lol. Anyway, it's late but I promise to get some new pics up of Jason and Jakey's first days of school and Isaac's new helmet.

Protection Needed

Too many times, I see motorcyclists on the road with no helmets. The common reason the riders give is they don't want to mess up their hair. I suppose a messed up face after a crash is better. I'm not sure why the disdain for helmets when there are stylish ones out there, like bell helmets. I've even seen my own father riding around without a helmet on. Please, I would like you all to keep riding the motorcycles you love. Just do it with a helmet on.

That reminds me of a story I read a month or so ago about a biker at a rally to protest a law making it illegal to ride without a helmet. He ended up crashing during the rally and died. Officials said he probably would have survived if he'd been wearing a helmet. So sad.

BBQ Bacon Meatloaf sandwich

Yep, that's right. Barbecue sauce, bacon, and meatloaf all together to make a tasty, juicy sandwich fit for any meat lover.

First, start off with your meatloaf. Any kind will do. Cut off a nice inch-thick slice of the meatloaf. Then take a slice (or 2, or 3, it's bacon, the more the merrier!) and wrap it around your meatloaf. I only used 1 slice of bacon. Do at least 2 slices, 1 was not enough bacon-y goodness.

Now fry that sucker up. (See what I mean about needing more bacon? In my excitement I kind of forgot that the bacon would shrink when cooked. Needs more bacon!)

Now take your bun, a hot dog bun was about perfect size for mine but any kind will do, and put a generous drizzle of bbq sauce on both sides and place the juicy bacon meatloaf burger in.

Enjoy!

Bear Lake

Here's some pictures from our Bear Lake vacation.
Yummy shakes


Babies first times in swings


The slide at the pool was a huge hit, especially with Nathan


Ice cream!

Playing at the playground

Mini golf

This was what is normally the beach. Typically the sand extends past where those boats are.

This post took forever because my computer is acting stupid :P Lately it's been acting up on me, probably from a little 2.5yr old pressing buttons when he shouldn't lol. A couple days ago every time it came out of sleep mode it would pop up that computer network cable unplugged warning and I'd have to turn off the wireless adapter button thing and turn it back on to get my Internet to work again. Luckily it was fine again the next day. Today it just keeps freezing up. Probably because it's been sitting on the couch so getting too hot.

Lagoon!

I was so excited about Hubby's work Lagoon day this year because for the last 3 years I have not been able to ride any roller coasters (1- pregnant, 2- rain, 3- pregnant again) but this year I could! And the weather was just perfect the whole day too. Jason was thrilled that he was tall enough for some of the bigger roller coasters, so I got to go with him to ride his first real roller coasters. It's amazing how much stuff you need to pack for a day out with 5 little kids lol. We brought both strollers, snacks and drinks, and swimming stuff. We almost need a yakima bike rack at cracksandracks.com now to tie on extra gear anytime we travel lol. Nathan loved Lagoon-A Beach, the water was super freezing but he just kept wanting to go down the little slides over and over. His whole body was shaking from the cold but he did not want to leave lol. It was fun seeing him get to go on rides this year. All the boys love the bumper cars and we let then go on those many many times. Nate's family came down and went with us and it was nice to have the help so he and I could ride some rides. We let the boys play in the water fountain before we left and they got drenched, but had a blast. It was an exhausting but good day.

Sunny days

I decided to make the babies sunhats (following this tutorial at Prudent Baby). They have come in so handy! They wear them anytime we go outside and I like that in the car they don't have to cry from the sun being in their eyes since we don't have shades on the windows. And of course they look adorable!

Jakey's 5th Birthday

Yeah, this is a little late, but oh well lol. Jakey turned 5 on June 1. We had his birthday party the Saturday after and it was good times. Just a small bbq at home with family. He got some gifts that he really enjoyed. It's nice that he's still young enough that buying a ton of stuff from the Target $1 section makes him happy lol. We usually get one or 2 bigger gifts (Megamind this time) then just a bunch of filler gifts like crayons and stuff. When he's a teen asking for a cell phone, michael kors watch, laptop, etc we'll be in trouble! I went with cupcakes instead of a cake because it's just much easier to serve and cuts down on cleanup. We enjoyed having family come celebrate with us.