4 score and 36 cupcakes ago

a birthday was had.

candles were lit

guests were invited

games were played

prizes were fished for

cupcakes were consumed. smiles all around
and tons and tons of buttercream frosting was consumed over a 2 week period.

these were for his school friends/primary class party:

and these created for his preschool class(i stayed up WAY too late watching step up whilst making them. but totally worth it. that movie is high school/dancing/criminal record genius. it's like watching girls just want to have fun, boyz in the hood and strictly ballroom all at once.)

and this for his grandparent's party at chuck e cheese(plumber pant heaven). do you see the theme? reagan is afraid of snakes, but wanted a snake birthday cake. sssss

and of course this wacky one for heather just because i can't resist a cookie cake with an embarassing childhood nickname.

should i start a baking business? mediocre cakes by heidi? imperfect pastry perfection? contemptable delectables? artery clogging cakes?

the day of reagan's joint birthday school friends/primary friends extravaganza, weather started like this:
and then progressed to this:

it was great. we all love snow. in spring. when we should be wearing adorable gold metallic gladiator sandals. that were purchased WAY back in january. in the hopes that warm weather may come soon. hurray for winter. hurry back. we need more reasons to cry that we couldn't have our easter egg hunt outside. when only the weekend before it had been 70 degrees. i love a good practical joke mother nature!!! haha, you got us good!!!

adios from some fun moms:

break it down again(no more sleepy dreaming)

conference weekend is one of my favorite weekends a year. for real. general conference is the biannual meeting of the church of jesus christ of latter-day saints. it is broadcast from the conference center in salt lake city, utah to churches, stake centers and homes and on the internet to people all around the world. it is nothing short of complete awesomenes. a long cool drink of spiritual refreshment.

conference saturday breakdown:
8am saturday- wake up with almost no voice. it is barely below a squeak and just above a whisper. make the BEST WAFFLES ever for breakfast. seriously. homemade waffles are the bomb dot com and are totally worth the minimal effort. i can never go back to bisquick again.
9am- laze about the house doing chores and cleaning syrupy faces.
10am-peruse for new curtain ideas on the internets. discover the "perfect" panels.
11am-start watching the saturday morning session of conference.

i must admit that i wasn't listening to most of elder hale's talk. i was sitting in my recliner, positioned for listening to the speakers, but my mind and my eyes were staring at the window. the day before i had gotten the motivation i needed to take down the awful curtains in our living room. i have disliked them from day 1, but i haven't done anything about them because that would require decision making and i am not a home decor decision maker. however, something elder's hales said struck a chord with me. he said quoting 2 Nephi 10:51,

"Wherefore, do not spend money for that which is of no worth, nor your labor for that which cannot satisfy. Hearken dlilgently unto me, and remember the words which i have spoken; and come unto the Holy One of Israel and feast upon that which perisheth not, neither be corrupted..."

oh, gee. i tried my best to ignore that admonishment. i don't consider myself a greedy person, but i certainly do love to get new things. so, i pondered a bit more about it. and then this morning i put the sheers of the old curtains back up. let's not get crazy. i'm not about to put the gloomy, dreadful brown curtains of death back up, but i can at least put up with plain cream sheers for a while, or until my dream curtains are clearanced. perhaps i can get them for my birthday.(in t-minus 22 days.)
LESSON LEARNED-you can never get enough of what you don't need.

6:30pm-while the menfolk went to the Priesthood session of conference, my mother and i go shopping for an upcoming birthday. (whose birthday you ask? my birthday! april 28th, remember?)

9:30pm-WAAAAY after bedtime, scarlett and i bonded over ice cream. straight from the carton. a pair of pants i want so badly to fit, did not and i needed to nurse my ego back to health with some ice cream straight from the carton. it was a wonderful way to spend time with my darling daughter. and a terrific habit for her to develop!

cheers

four years ago, right after reagan was born, thomas had a big internship in atlanta for 7 weeks. i scoured the internet for months leading up to this big adventure so that we could fine a suitable apartment for our family, including a screaming, poopy newborn and a crotchety, old dog. not many people are very excited about leasing an aparment for such a short amount of time to this somewhat lethal combination for a reasonable amount of money in downtown atlanta. after much effort and disappointment finally i happened upon a website called sublets dot com. this "apartment" was advertised as a two bedroom lake front basement apartment with a short commute to downtown. considering that we had zero other options, we signed a lease with our new "roomates", as they referred to themselves. that should have been our first indication of incredible and unparalled weirdness.

the lake view:

the high style family room/hippy commune with real wood burning stove.

our groovy bedroom full of beatles memorabillia. being a huge beatles fan, i thought this would be a plus. it was not. it's plain creepy sleeping in a room with 26 collectible plates and the faces of john, paul george and ringo staring at you from every poster, dish and surface. it was like living in an episode of "that 70s show".

the second bedroom(term used loosely) was actually a closet full of star wars and battlestar gallatica memorabillia with no ceiling and a giant water pipe running through it.

bobby, our roomate. part-time bag piper player. full-time hippy weirdo.

our very own in house band and "stage". "stage" referred to any part of the room where the instruments were. when we signed the lease they agreed to move all band equipment out of the way. we should have clarified. out of the way to our roomates was 1 foot closer to the wall than they already were.

the bar/kitchen where i mixed up reagan's bottles. it was like living in cheers.

it was an unbelievable experience. i got pretty good at throwing darts while making dinner. oftentimes thomas and i would have romantic evenings under the glow of the neon heineken lights. i got pretty good at making dinner in the first microwave ever made and i was nothing short of addicted to drinking shirley temples by the time we left. we probably owe them a bottle of grenadine.

what we learned:

1.we saved a whole gob of money by living there so it was worth it.

2. it kept us humble.

3. there is no such thing as a short commute in atlanta.

4. thomas and i both have a good sense of humor because this whole experience was hilarious to us.
5. any place we lived after this was an improvement. we could have lived in an old converted school bus or a teepee and been fine.

meet the becks

as many of you may know, the twin cities of moorhead, minnesota and fargo, north dakota have been battling flooding from the red river for several days now. my brother and his family live up there and they have been chronicling on their blog their day to day activities as they prepare for flooding or emergency evacuation.
what started out for me as merely checking their blog to make sure that they are alright has turned into a daily ritual to find out what lengths they have had to go to insure that their family and their home is safe. it has been quite the inspiring experience for me. their daily posts have detailed their individual efforts and the contributions of their entire community to protecting their city. situations like this really remind me of how incredible humankind can be. difficult situations truly bind people together.
read it and find out what kind of amazing dedication steve and sarah have(i taught steve everything he knows about being awesome). i think they are such a great example of hard work and love and i am so grateful that they have been safe thus far in this trial.
meet the becks

vampyromania

stardate: march 21, 2009
mission: obtain twilight special edition dvd
accomplice: rochelle

first stop was border's. rochelle and i chilled took pictures and checked out new releases. 20 minutes before midnight, a borders employee announced for everyone to line up according to bracelet number. puzzled, we asked the nearest goth bookstore employee how we obtained said bracelet. apparently the last bracelet had been passed out at 10am that morning. upon hearing this crucial piece of information, we booked it out of there and i drove like a cullen to the nearest store.

lucky for us the nearest store selling twilight special edition dvds was my favorite place on earth(and yours too, admit it!) wal-mart!!! wal-mart at midnight on the weekend is the nearest thing to a lake of fire and brimstone that i can think of. sometimes i wonder if the prison parole bus just drops people off outside.

i took this picture under the guise that i want to show how long the line was. i was number 252. but really, this picture is to point out this creepy kid who was in line in front of us. has his skin ever seen light of day?

better yet was the people who stood in line behind us. this little clan had the filthiest mouths i had heard in a long time. every other word was effing this or effing that. the f-word makes my ears want to bleed. i was incredibly tempted to point out that their misuse of the f-word as an adjective, but from the sounds of it, i was also going to have to explain what an adjective is. there wasn't enough time left in the day for that lesson.

a successful purchase.

saturday night there was a small celebration at my house. deleted and extended scenes were viewed. blood was sampled from champagne flutes. our appetites were whet for new moon. here's to november 20, 2009!
here are the party people who also love to watch ridiculously awful yet compellingly fantastic movies. even more awesomely bad was watching it again on sunday night with the director's commentary. the only good thing about the twilight movie is that when you start at the bottom of the barrel of movie making, you are practically guaranteeing that new moon movie has to be exponentially better.

all this vampire talk got me thinking about some really important issues. if i ever am forced into driving a van(pray it never happens), i am definitely getting this as a vanity plate.

interstate love song

over the weekend thomas and i had our first opportunity to take an over night trip sans children in a LOOOONG time. it was heaven on earth to be away from those darling little monsters, if only for about 20 hours.

i picked big T up from the bright lights of downtown...

and we headed to the slightly less bright lights of winter quarters, nebraska. i always say that the best way to reconnect with your spouse is to take a road trip with them through the middle of nowhere. we laughed. big T drove. i napped. we ate at the ABSOLUTELY WORST sonic and mcdonalds on earth in the same 10 minutes. we sang along with the radio.(don't worry paula, you aren't the only one who wishes we could open the windows when i start singing.) we listened to the stone temple pilots greatest hits. we fell in love again listening to interstate love song. we discussed the band's merits and we pinky swore that we would never become addicted to heroin as it not only destoys bands but other important things like families.

our accomodations were at the mormon trail motel. i tried to find some photos online before i booked the room but i was unsuccessful. i don't think the proprietor had heard of this "internets phenomenon" yet. a vacancy at this palace? shocker.

behold, the only photos of the mormon trail motel available online. our luxurious accomodations:

we enjoyed all 6 channels on the TV and BOTH pillows on the bed. we felt like pioneers and we agreed that staying at this resort would become a family tradition.

the sign in the daylight: please note the fine establishment located next door.

the hotel exterior:

we enjoyed some time at the winter quarters temple.

the winter quarters temple is located next to a pioneer cemetary from when early latter-day saints were forced out of missouri into nebraska. over 600 saints died here from elements, illness and exposure in the winter of 1847.

i took this opportunity to bawl my face off. few things can put your life into perspective like visiting a place inhabited by people who gave their lives for the gospel of Jesus Christ and religious freedom. i promised myself i would be less of a whiner about my little problems.

mourn not for those who peaceful lay their wearied bodies down

who leave this frail and mortal clay to seek a fadeless crown

bowchickawowow

last night i washed el presidente's heavy winter coat. this morning i took it out of the dryer and it put on him before leaving for the gym. i dropped the kids off in childcare and thought nothing of it when reagan wanted to continue to wear his coat while he was playing with the other kids. this is not unusual for him; it is a great coat. i had an excellent workout and i was able to enjoy the fantastically vacuous new show on the style network called "running in heels". it is pure cat fights and other drivel in the fashion world so you know it is destined to become a new favorite. after running i finished up by stretching and chit chatting with my geriatric boyfriends tom and dick. afterwards, i checked the kids out of childcare and we drove home. as i was removing el presidente's coat, i noticed something small, black and satin stuck to the velcro square at his collar. upon further examination it was definitely something small, black and satin....and personal. it was an item of clothing that doesn't get worn very often around these parts. it was not a quilt square. it was not a hankerchief. not a scarf either. and it was not a bra. if you were one of the childcare workers, would you have pointed this very visible item out to me or would you have just rolled with it?

bullseye

blogs are a stalker's paradise. i commend all of you who have private blogs. but for me and my house, i am too much of a narcissist. i love comments and i am flattered by the positive things you have written. i value the friendships and reconnections i have made through the blog-o-sphere. but most importantly i like writing and i love writing about myself. i love pictures of myself. i especially love really bad pictures of myself.

truly awesome badness circa 1993

Elder M. Russell Ballard has encouraged LDS people to use the internet to dispel myths and falsehoods about the Church of Jesus Christ of latter-day Saints. hopefully my blog has shown people that LDS people or mormons, as we are more commonly known, are just like anyone else you meet; people who want happy families, who work hard, who enjoy the cameraderies of people of other faiths, and that LDS people have testimonies of our Savior Jesus Christ.

however, i admit i have made some mistakes when it comes to posting information about my family on the internet. recently i have found myself trying to scale back some of the information that i share about my little kidlets and our location in the world. it doesn't take a rocket surgeon to google someone's name to find more information about them.

so, if any of you out there in cyberworld would ever feel compelled to harm myself or my family in any way, let me share a tidbit of information with you about myself:

i'm a really good shot.

and i would not hesitate for even one hot second to drop you like you were hot.

and i don't mean dancing. you would never forget me.

don't believe me? click to enlarge.

pardon my REALLY ugly pants. this was about 5 years ago. those pants have since been burned. but the hat is truly awesome.

we are the champions, my friends!

the steamboat willies, my amazingly inept volleyball team, won our first match last night. sure, we have won a game before, but last night we SWEPT all three games. it was a momentous occasion.

what makes this victory so magical?

1. we normally have an entire cheering section full of children, husbands, dads, mothers, siblings and team sponsors rooting for us. last night we only had one lone spectator cheer us on to victory. lesta is now our secret weapon and no one else is invited but her. sorry fans, the taste of success is too strong to ignore. i want another bite and i don't want anybody messing us up. we are on a winning streak. try to understand.

2. our wednesday night practice was cancelled. we all came to this match completely unprepared.

3. i served the ball OVER the net MULTIPLE times. i only messed up because i got cocky. but cocky isn't so bad either because at least i'm not just on the team now to fill the roster.

4. i was called for an illegal hit twice. i was secretly pleased by this news because that means i was actually having contact with the ball instead of my normal technique of diving to the ground and completely missing.

5. bruce, our fearless leader and unofficial coach, was absent. we had to think up our rotation and strategy on our own.

6. the opposing team consisted of some of the oldest women athletes that i had ever seen. they arrived on one of those public transportation vans that drive old people around.(just kidding) one of them even had an oxygen tank.(not really) i spiked on her 3 times.(not true either, the only spiking i can do is with short hair.) we smoked those geezers.

7. due to illness and out-of-townedness, we were missing several key players. we had to go outside the ranks to fill our roster. luckily we had lauren she might have been a little more than helpful to our team. just don't ask her how old she is. and she definitely wasn't anyone on the team's daughter. those were just rumors the other team started to psych us out.


and just to prove to you that this is all real and not something that i made up, i present, the steamboat willies:

(photo courtesy of jamey's blog. i totally took this without permission. thanks for loving me anyway.)

and i am completely aware that my hair looks like i just rolled out of bed. that's just how hard i play. i am in it to win it!

weekend with a side of sickness, hold the phlegm please.

thursday- time for scarlett's 18 month pictures, since she is now 19 months. whatever works, right?
i wanted to surprise big T for valentine's day with a picture of his two girls. SURPRISE! we are both sick. thankfully hacking and coughing all over the place photographs really well and we pull it together for two good pictures. even the photographer couldn't convince herself to try and sell us the other poses. i think the words "hot mess" were used.

friday-big T and i celebrate valentine's day early. i actually prefer to NOT go out on valentine's. all our favorite places are overrun by making-out junior high kids. perhaps it's time to abandon the fast food places? we settled on culvers. we love it. great burgers. great fries. DELISH ice cream products. plus we had multiple coupons. they let you use as many as you want at a time. ideal for cheapskates like us.

who's got two thumbs and loves culvers?

this guy!!!

i got the bleu cheeseburger and big T got the double butter burger. i love bleu cheese. in fact, during no junk month january i found myself eating spoonful by fantastic moldy spoonful for mid afternoon snacks. what's that sound you hear? just our arteries clogging. you can actually hear us getting fatter.

dessert was chocolate brownie oreo concretes. size medium, thanks.

then we headed out to the picture show and saw taken. totally loved it. i was thinking lamesauce, but it was awesome sauce. plus, the theater was empty enough that i could sniffle and snot all i wanted and no one complained. saturday-had lunch with my madre(pardon my corpse-like complexion)

and then we went to the nelly don house for a tour benefitting the kansas city symphony. because we are classy like that.

and then we met up with my sister at coldstone to celebrate! heather had taken the lsat that morning. this was her impression of the over-achiever who sat next to her and finished every section 20 minutes before everyone else.

feeling right at home with the ice cream menu.

sunday-went to church and spoke in sacrament meeting. i may or may not have inadvertently claimed that moses wanted to sacrifice his son on an altar. i blame it on the cold medicine.

after church the whole fam damily watched gifted hands: the ben carson story. i love made-for-tv-movies and i bawled my face off. i am now determined to overcome my middle class upbringing and become a neurosurgeon. or a rapper. which do you think is more plausible? word, that's what i thought too, yo.

no wonder no one liked jan(uary) brady

NO JUNK for the MONTH of JANUARY is finally over. i did it and it was great. the first week was tough, but after that, no big deal. it's good for what ails you, like the 37 pounds i gained during december.
breaking the fast with my two desserts: a bowl of chocolate ice cream sprinkled with m&ms and a dove square and a huge hunk of peach cobbler and some vanilla ice cream.
oh ice cream! i missed you. let's never fight again!