A little treat

Our little M&M family. I saw this on another blog, and thought it was so cute. So The Snack and I had a little fun creating our own M&M characters (note the "yellow bus"...The Snacks favorite addition to the picture). We each are holding an item we absolutely cannot live without. Yes ice cream is my item. Gotta have it. Can't live without it. If I started to get fat I'd work out twice as much just to be able to keep ice cream in my daily diet! The Dad-n is an artist, so that's an easy one. A paint brush...which of course is coming very close to painting my hair! Typical of a true artist...not only does he create beautiful paintings...he's also prone to create quite "beautiful" messes at times. Fortunately he now has his own studio (hallelujah). And for The Snack, a music lover just like his dad-n, a little guitar. This kid is always hoppin' and boppin' and begging me to "sing loud" in the middle of the grocery store. He's the voice in the back of the chapel at church singing "BOB THE BUILDER" at the top of his lungs long after the sacrament hymn has ended!

As for this family we're, without a doubt, peanut-butter M&M's. Unfortunately the Dad-n and I both adore the peanut-butter kind, so I'm not able to hide them and hoard them all to myself. But then again, maybe that's a good thing...I mean it's already enough work just to keep ice cream in my diet!

So...what kind of M&M would you be?

p.s. If you want to create your own M&M characters click here.

It was meant to be

I'm playing catch up on some tags. Here's one I'd almost forgotten...this one's for you Shaka...so here goes!

1. Where did you meet?
Our first meeting was on a youth temple trip to the Washington DC temple. I was sitting on the bus looking out the window at people getting on and saw him and said to my friend, “who’s that kid?” I’d never seen him before, and she had no idea, so I just forgot about it. Then the next day everyone went to the Lincoln Monument, it was raining so my friends stayed on the bus, but I couldn’t pass up this opportunity to see the monument of my favorite president, so I went alone. On my way back some kid ran down the steps after me and asked if he could walk me back to the bus…it was HIM. Too weird. I was nervous, so I forgot his name and practically ran to the bus. He was great though, and we ended up sitting by each other later…and then “going out” for several months.
2. What was the first thing you said to your husband?
I probably told him my name, and something lame like “oh I know your mom from girls camp.”
3. Where was your first date?
My senior reception. We really hit it off on the bus trip, but he lived an hour away, so we'd talk on the phone for hours every night (yikes those phone bills!). And since he was my "boyfriend" I asked him to be my date for the reception. We had a great time (my sister let me borrow her red Mitsubishi Eclipse for the night…thanks laina!)

4. Where was your first kiss?
He was about to leave on a long family vacation and I drove out to see him. We walked to the movie theater, he gave me a gift – a Blues Traveler tape, and in it a note I wasn’t allowed to read until I left. On the walk back I could tell he was nervous and trying to figure out what to do, we ended up standing outside by my car for a long time, until finally he kissed me. It was ruined by the neighbor taking out his trash, but we were just kids…so it was awkward anyway! The note was about his plans to kiss me, he figured he couldn’t back out if I had the note!
5. Did you have a long courtship/engagement?
Uhmmm…I'd say so! We dated for the whole summer after I graduated high school. Then broke up, but it was easy going and mutual. I went to Ricks, he’s a "younger man," so he finished high school and went to Utah State University. Then we both went on missions and actually stayed friends and kinda wrote on our missions (like two letters). I got home a few months before him so I was ready and waiting to welcome him back to the real world when he returned (his younger sister kinda pushed us into hanging out together, thanks Jess!). We were inseparable from that moment on. And got married 4 years later (we stayed in Connecticut and finished up college together).
6. Where did you get engaged?
On my last day of college classes, before all the graduation junk, he took me to a park by the school for a celebration picnic. Again the nervousness showed, and he broke out the little gift box and popped the question. And the coolest part was that a newspaper photographer for the Hartford Courant caught the “yes” moment on camera, so it was published in the newspaper the next day! We thought that was appropriate after so many years of dating our engagement should be a news worthy event!
7. How did the reception go?

More than fabulous - it helps to have your own personal Martha Stewart for a sister! It was outdoors with tents and a dance floor my dad created. There was a local fireworks show that night, so we had fireworks for free! It was seriously a reception you’d dream about with all the roses and flickering candle lanterns etc. but these few pics can't even begin to do it justice.
8. How was the honeymoon?
We had a “prima-note” as my husband calls it, the first night. We just went away for the weekend to New London, Ct. (crazy town we think everyone we met were aliens hiding in human bodies like in Men in Black). But we were waiting for our real honeymoon until the next month when his aunt’s summer cottage on Cape Cod was available - where we had a great time biking, swimming, exploring, visiting art galleries, shopping, eating great food...all the fun stuff you do on Cape Cod!

There were incidents and accidents...

Golly...how can I find time for blogging with all the other craziness that happens in life?! So the other day I hear this hissing noise coming from behind the fridge, which is plenty frightening, then water...no, strike that...WATER came pouring out everywhere! So the story is; the line that feeds the ice maker burst, and my kitchen floor got a good washing in places that have never seen the bristles of a broom, never mind a mop! Of course the Dad-n had just left like 20 minutes earlier, so I was alone on this one...well, me and The Snack. So I'm trying to squeeze behind the fridge and The Snack is standing at the edge of the kitchen with water lapping at his toes saying "Wha happn' mama? Wha happn' mama?" Trying to stay calm as I twist, and twist, and try to twist some more, the knob that supposedly shuts the water off, I yell "get some towels, Snack!" Knowing that sending my two year old off to fetch towels is a fruitless effort, but he nevertheless attempts to comply and goes running off to each bathroom coming back empty handed. Of course he can't reach our towels on the back of the bathroom door, but it brings some relief to me that I can at least yell some orders out. Eventually after getting ENTIRELY drenched I got the knob to turn the right direction and turned the water off. Then after breast stroking my way to the bathroom I grabbed all the towels I could and dropped them in the water...but as we all know, a towel doesn't really do too much to lap up a lake. So I set to work with the mop (wishing I'd invested in a wet/dry vacuum like my genius mother has...but hey, she's got YEARS on me, ok). Of course The Snack is always willing to lend a hand "my turn mama?" grabbing the mop and nearly knocking over my bucket of freshly absorbed ocean. Eventually I get the water up, but of course floods aren't cooperative, and they like to get into EVERYTHING. So, needless to say, my pantry as well as my laundry room got a little "Spring Cleaning." Which of course brings about new stories and tasks that I don't even want to go into! Now, if only I'd had the presence of mind amidst all of this to snap some great blog photos, but I'm certain you can all have a good time imagining this scene on your own.

83% Texan

I may be biased, but I think he's the cutest darn cowboy I've ever laid eyes on! (and I'm not really into cowboys). As you all know I was looking to go the easy route this Halloween, so The Snack happened to have these itty bitty Wranglers in his wardrobe which, in my non-cowboy-loving opinion, could be worn for nothing but a costume! So the inspiration finally did come, I just had to search a bit for it. I even found The Dad-n's cowboy belt buckle (a gift from an outside source...obviously!) which was super large on The Snack, and perfect for a real rodeo cowboy! Yes those boots are real snake skin (borrowed of course). And the bandanna is real....uhmmm girls camp issue? Ok, so we didn't go fully Texas here, but we sure tried. Actually my husband always says that percentage wise The Snack is more Texan than anything else...Yikes! I think it's starting to show because he's actually a little obsessed with cowboys these days (somehow I took out a cowboy book as well as a cowboy Bob the Builder video from the Library as a fluke recently, and now The Snack just can't get enough cowboy...hence the PJ's pic...he loves the look...day or night!) And it sure seems to work as far as winning over the ladies, you can see he caught himself a couple of cowgirls here

The Dad-n and I even had some fun this year. Our friends had their annual Halloween costume party, so I wrestled The Dad-n into a costume (he HATES dressing up, but finally agreed to think of something and settled on a masking tape mummy) I went as a pirate because my other choices according the the flier from the party store were; half naked hooker, half naked waitress, half naked nurse, or half naked Gypsy. We ended up winning this apple eating contest...which I guess proves we're either good kissers, or good at biting each others heads off! All in all, it was a fun filled Halloween. I think year 2 is the best for trick or treating...The Snack actually recognized this year that it was candy everyone was giving him, but now can't understand how it is possible that it is "all gone" as I keep telling him when he begs for it!

Well, now I'm off to search the candy bag for chocolate...Twix if I'm lucky...So I'm curious...what candy are you stealing from your kids stash this year?

Uhhh...I've been slacking for a bit...

I was tagged with this cute little guy a while ago, but I've been all-computered-out for a bit. So I'm back now. And since he's a candy corn (can't stand to eat these things actually) I thought he should just be a little Halloween post. Thanks for the tag Shaka...now I'll go work on the other tag you sent me!