::cousins+cookies=awesome::

When Max and I were visiting in Utah we thought it would be fun to get the cousins together so they could decorate valentines cookies. So we did. These photos are from the same day as the others I posted a couple days ago, just in case anybody was wondering.
Kathy was fabulous and mixed up the cookie dough in advance, then she and I cooked them up that morning so that when the Parker and KC got there the boys could just go for it.
They were pretty excited.

To go along with the varied personalities of the boys come varied cookie decorating methods.
Parker is very serious, methodical and pretty precise.

He outlined all his hearts with frosting really carefully.

Then we have Max.

He's never done this before, so he's definitely a newbie. I loved eating the cookies he decorated because of the three inch piles of frosting.
It's funny because this is kind of like how he draws. He's not careful and he's not precise. He just likes to scribble. Unless he's writing something. So this didn't surprise me.


I'm not sure what KC's technique was. He's still kind of little for things like this. He did a good job and he got a lot of help.

I love his almost cross-eyed concentration there. And his little tongue sticking out.


Then they sprinkled.

There were lots of sprinkle options, so picking out the exact right ones was kind of complicated.

At one point Max opened up all the little spigots on that big one and tried to pour them all out at once. I intercepted it though, luckily.

And then the finished product.

And the taste test.

I have to tell you, they were extremely delicious. In fact I wish I was eating one now.



I think they turned out very cute. Impressive for a bunch of little hooligan boys! It's not just any boy that can frost a heart so beautifully.

Then Grandma took over and frosted the rest, and they were gorgeous.

I think we should do it again next year.

::old::

So the last couple of days I got out my scanner and starting scanning a whole bunch of old negatives from back in high school. I was in photography class for at least two years, so I have a lot of old black and white rolls that I developed myself. Most of the photos I never bothered to print, so it's fun to see them. They're old and some of them are hilarious. The funny ones are mainly of Murphy.

I've posted most of them on facebook, so if you're my friend you can go check them out. If you're not my facebook friend then you should be!

But here are a few gems.

Murph swinging on our old awesome swingset in the backyard.

Murphy again. So tiny.

Cammon and his friend Ben being so cool.

Murphy and Char and neighborhood kid friends having a blast. I especially love Charlotte's leap there on the right. Woo hoo!

I can't wait to see what else is in there. Now I just have to convince myself that I have things to do that are more important than this.

::more stuff::

Another reason to love Trader Joe's. $1.49 for a little bundle of daffodils. $1.49 for a little package of sunshine? Who could pass that up.
The tags say they came from England, but I'm going to pretend that half of them came from our old neighborhood in Kansas City. I loved that place and I miss it. The other half I'm pretending came from my parents house.
Daffodils are so happy.
They're having a little trouble opening fully because it was so cloudy and rainy today it was almost like the sun never came up. Hopefully we get some sun tomorrow.


On another note. Who's better to snuggle with during Kung Fu Panda, than a Panda?

One with a karate suit on nonetheless.

Thanks for the chubby panda grandma!!

::cute cousins::

One of the many reasons that we love to visit Utah is because Max gets to spend time with his cousins. Cousins were (and are) super important to Kris and I growing up. We'd like Max to have the same close relationships with his that we had with ours.

Max and Scooter (Cammon & Lorri's little guy) don't have a ton in common yet, but I think they enjoyed hanging out together a bit.
Max and Parker (Kari's oldest), however, have quite a bit in common. In fact, so much in common that we weren't sure they were going to have any fun together at all this time.

They both seem to think they're the boss of the world. As soon as they started to try to play together it was evident that neither one was going to listen to the other. One yelled, another grabbed stuff. One pulled another's shirt. One came running up to us and said "so and so won't OBEY me!"

But the good news is, they worked things out after a bit and then had a really great time playing together.

This is so good for Max because being currently an only child, he doesn't have to compromise too much. It's different with friends. Cousins are as close to sibilingish relationship as you can get I think.

Now KC (Kari's youngest currently) has a completely different attitude than either Max or Parker. He's the kind of guy that just goes with the flow. He's a sweet little guy for sure.

He's pretty shy, and up until this visit I really hadn't gotten him to warm up to me at all. Happily, we got along well this visit and I even got a couple of hugs!

KC really loves his Grandpa though.

A lot.

So cute!

Anyway, it's really funny to see the differences in personality between the cousins. There are myriad.
Like Parker really likes to build stuff. Give him tinkertoys or lincoln logs or constructs and he's a happy man. Max wouldn't know what to do with a lincoln log if it bit him on the rear end. Building things does pretty much nothing for him.
This was evident because Parker built this cool gadget when they were playing.

And this cool gadget.

I told Max to go and make one really quick so that I could take pictures of them together with their gadgets.
Parker had to make one for him. It was pretty funny.

But that's why we have different talents and abilities, right? So we can share the love and take care of each other!

Just look at these goofballs.

They couldn't be cuter. Cousins are great, even if they do make you compromise sometimes!

::just stuff::

Yesterday and saturday were super nice. In the 60s, sunny. It was enough to make a person remember they're alive.
BUT. Of course now it's cold and rainy and haily and snowy. Argh!
Not the kind of weather for going to the park.

So Max has spent the afternoon watching PBS and playing with the oldschool land rovers I got Kris for christmas. Max is lucky he gets to touch them. Luckily Kris understands that Max's love for grovers is as great as his own.

They talk, they drive, they fly. They're pretty awesome. They even listened while Max read to me a little earlier.

Aw, what a cutie. I'm glad I have him to keep me company on long grey afternoons like this one.

Happily I also got something in the mail today that brightened things up a bit. I ordered some earrings from this etsy store that Erica recommended. The earrings are adorable, interesting and not that expensive! I hadn't gotten any new ones for a while, and have been wearing the same silver hoops every day so I figured it was time for a change.
Anyway I love them!

The birds I think are my favorites, although the pears are a close 2nd. And the the white drops are so sophisticated. Sometimes I need a little bit of that.

See?

This evening we're going to look at some available apartments in the area. We're needing to move, blah. Our place now, though we really love it, is just a tad bit too expensive for comfort. Our other problem is that Max needs someplace to go to kindergarten next year. The schools around here are all full day programs and that's not what I want him to do. So we're shopping around in other school districts. Renting is stressful--the timing is always so complex. Wish us luck....

::yum::

Do you want to eat something delicious and not at all nutritious?
Try whipping up a batch of these brownies.

They're from my favorite foody blog, Baking Bites. I like to read it all the time and daydream about the yummy delicious food. I try to only make treats from it quarterly. They're just too delicious not to eat every crumb of them once they're made.

These brownies have a layer of oatmeal cookie crust at the bottom. The brownie part is really chocolatey in a dark delicious way. (all you dark chocolate lovers out there would love them--mom and dad!!).

Luckily I had a good excuse to make these tonight because I've been dying to! Kris met a kid at church who is applying to a master's program at RISD. He was here for interviews and had taken a cab to church. He was nice and Kris recognized the lost traveller feeling that he's had a lot during interviews. Kris invited him to dinner and gave him a ride home from church.
After we fed him a yummy spaghetti dinner and he left, I started thinking about all the people that were so kind to us when we first went out to Kansas City, that made us feel welcome and at home right when we got there. And the friends who have done the same here. We're just so lucky to have our church, to have a built in support system with great friends no matter where we have to go.

Anyway, we're grateful when we think back on it, and it was nice to share the love a little bit today with somebody who needed it.
And Max liked the brownies of course.



Tomorrow's a new week, and I'm going to blog more, yay! Another week closer to spring. We'll make it there eventually.

::blue eyes::

While in Utah I was able to squeeze in a visit to Megan.  She's my oldest friend and pretty much my sister.  At least my cousin.  Anyway, it was great to get to see her, and her adorable kids.  She just had twin boys a few months back, and has a little girl who's two.  They're quite the busy and blue eyed household.
I think Megan is amazing. Funny and creative and fabulous. And adorable.
Of course I had to bring my camera. It's fun for me to get to take pictures of somebody besides Max for a change. And I love getting more practice taking portraits!

Please note, one boy has a BYU blanket and one has a U of U blanket. Megs' husband went to the U, so they have a bit of a conflict of interest in the family. It makes for some interesting football seasons, or so I hear.

This is Mags. She's kind of like a fireball and thinks she runs the world. She has a sweet little face, doesn't she?
She showed me a few of her talents.

Quite the skill, huh?

She seems to be pretty good at this too. It's an impressive expression. I think if I made that face I might get a cramp.

She's a cutie.

And here's Will.

and here again.

But kisses make everything much better.


And little Cole.

He was kinda sleepy. But very good while I took pictures.



Well, he was good until he and his brother bumped heads. That made them very mad.

And sad. Pitiful, huh?
It was at this point that the boys got some kisses and were sent off to bed.
Megan tried to read a bit with Mags and Max, but it didn't go so hot.

Two year olds aren't the best sharers out there. But Max and Mags actually had a pretty good time playing together while we visited. It was nice.

I just love Megan. What more can I say? And I love the beautiful blue eyes she's passed on to all her littles. Just gorgeous.