What the . . . ?

How did the non-animal person (me), end up with this living in my house?
I would like to introduce you to our new Shiz Tzu puppy, Charcoal. Or just Coal for short. He is about 4 months old.
Yes, he does look like an alien in these pics. For some reason his eyes do funny things in the flash. If some of you read my daughter's blog, you already know this, but for those of you who don't this was a birthday present for her 11th birthday. She has been begging and begging and begging for a dog. A little, indoor dog mind you. Just for the record, in case you haven't figured it out, I don't really care for pets, outdoor or indoor, but especially indoor animals.

After a trial run with an outdoor labrador in the past (he kept jumping all over the little kids and knocking them down, plus it's just too hot here) I decided that we were never going to have a dog again. Well, being that my husband is completely wrapped around his daughter's finger, he decided-againist my will-to get her a little puppy. I had nothing to do with this.

One alien eye here. It's really hard to get a good pic of a black dog.

So, now we are buying dog food, treats, bones, a dog crate, collar and leash, we were lucky enough to get a doggie door for free, paying for vet visits and shots, bathing him and wiping boogers out of his eyes, and soon we are going to have to pay someone to groom him. Lovely. Oh, and Kaylee is buying a new cord for her Dad's computer. It seems to have been eaten by a scrappy little dog.

Looking a little scruffy here.

Although I hate the idea of having an indoor pet (my family members are all probably shocked and appalled upon reading that I have allowed an animal to live in my home) he really is a good dog. Really. And pretty cute too.

Sophee's dance recital

Sophee had her very first dance recital at the end of May. Her group did a cute little 'flower fairy' dance. Unfortunately I was having issues getting it recorded, and I only have part of it on my camera. My SIL recorded it, and I'm hoping her's turned out better than mine. I could tell Sophee was pretty nervous, but she still did well. I'm proud of my little 5 year old for getting on stage and dancing in front of a full house!
Hamming it up!

The best thing for dinner

Can I just share with you one of my favorite dinners? It's Breakfast! Breakfast for dinner. I absolutely looooooove Denny's French slam-anytime of day. Infact I'm getting the urge to grab my purse and head down there right now. To bad I know my 5 year old wouldn't sit still long enough for me to enjoy the meal. Not only that, but it's 2:45 p.m. and she's still in her panties. In the meantime I guess I'll just have to settle for drooling over this picture. I made some french toast the other night for dinner, and even had my homemade strawberry syrup with it. Okay, I didn't set out to can a bunch of strawberry syrup-it just happened when I didn't add the pectin to my strawberry jam mixture. There you go. Nothing like the pic above, but still good.

There's just one little problem with my love of breakfast (other than the insane amount of sugar-yes, I'm a sugar addict, but I'll save that for a later post). Here's the problem; while my kids and I love breakfast for dinner my husband is not a big fan. Well, okay, he's not a fan at all. I really can't blame him-after working a long, hard day he wants to come home to meat and potatoes. Yes, he's a manly man. Infact, I have learned early on that I need to call him and tell him when I plan on making breakfast for dinner so that he can run and grab himself a burger-that way I can avoid a little crankiness :-) (love you honey).

I could honestly schedule breakfast for dinner once a week. When I was a little girl my mom would do just that, every Saturday night, and us kids totally looked forward to pancakes or french toast. Infact, I had a friend in Jr. high who's mom did the same thing, and she even took it a step further by making waffles and letting her kids spread chocolate frosting on them. I spent the night there once and got to experience chocolate covered waffles-yummmy. I tried to convince my mom to let us do the same, but she wasn't for it. I have never actually tried that, probably because my waffle iron bit the dust years ago, but I think I would if it weren't for the fact that an open container of chocolate frosting wouldn't last long in our house. Yes, I'm that kind of mother. I give my children ice cream for breakfast-once in a blue moon.

You have to watch this

Okay, so I've only watched/listened to this about 10 times since first seeing it yesterday. I'm so impressed with Jon Schmidt's piano skills. All three of my girls love Taylor Swift's 'Love story' so I have heard it many times. Maybe that's why I like this song so much.

As requested. . . recipe for chocolate eclair cake

This is one of my favorite desserts. I got the recipe from a Utah ward cookbook about 10 years ago. Everytime I make it someone asks for the recipe, so here it is. (picture courtesy of flickr).

CHOCOLATE ECLAIR CAKE

1 box of graham crackers (3 sleeves)

2 small packages of vanilla pudding

1 (8 oz.) container of cool whip

3 1/2 C. milk

1 1/2 containers of store bought chocolate frosting

In a 9 X 13 pan place a layer of whole graham crackers to completely cover the bottom of the pan. Mix together the pudding and milk. Fold in the cool whip. Pour half of the pudding mixture over the top of the crackers. Add another layer of graham crackers. In a microwave safe bowl heat up the frosting for about 30 seconds-to make it runny enough to spread easily over the crackers. Spread onto the graham crackers you just laid down. Pour the rest of the pudding mixture over the frosting, even out, and place one more layer of crackers on top. Frost the top layer with the warm frosting. Chill for at least 6 hours.

*I 'improved' the recipe by adding the layer of chocolate frosting in the middle. If you don't care to do this than you will only need 1 can of frosting. If you're a chocolate lover like myself than you wouldn't even think of leaving it out.

*I would also strongly suggest that you make this dessert the night before you plan on serving it-or first thing in the morning. That way the graham crackers are nice and soft.

Yum Yum! Enjoy.

Feeding the ducks

After spending Saturday and Sunday leisurely watching general conference, and being spiritually uplifted, my children were ready to get out of the house-can you believe that they weren't all that excited about watching conference? As I was watching the first session on Sat. and listening to this lovely sister's talk on reverence, and how we need to teach our children reverence, Sophee comes up to me and screams, "I WANT TO WATCH SPONGEBOB!" about 5 times. Lovely.

Anyway, we decided that we would take the kids to feed the ducks Sunday evening. Here are the only 2 ducks we ran into:
Needless to say, after about a few minutes of throwing bread crumbs those 2 birds had all they could possibly want.

And the kids moved on to collecting sea shells . . .

. . . and wading in the water in their church shoes-CHURCH SHOES! Why is that child wearing her church shoes? Oh well, not much I can do about it now . . .

As Sophee was walking in the water she slipped and fell, and got completely soaked. I thought she'd immediately start crying because the water was quite cold but no, she just embraced it and decided 'What the heck? I'm already wet', might as well just do this:

Humoring Mom and holding still long enough for her to snap a picture of all 4 of them together:

Looking at the great and spacious buildings:

So that was our little family outing. We totally enjoyed having Dad home with us for almost the whole weekend-and I think we 'conveniently' ran out of gas for the lawn mower just so Dad wouldn't have to work to hard.

Wahoo for food storage!

Am I the only one whose heart skips a beat when they see this?
I freakin' love the case lot sales! I would spend thousands of dollars on the case lot sales, if only we didn't need to pay the mortgage! Darn it. Well, I did a little stocking up. Can't blow the whole grocery budget in one week. Sophee insisted on being in the picture-along with her can of pringles-and no, that's not something I stock up on, much to my children's dismay.

Happy food storing!