Cousin Time

My sister-in-laws and I had a bread making day a few weeks ago. We were hard at work grinding the wheat when we discovered our children, painting one another's faces. Too funny. I love the cute stage that Will is in- he is so lively and fun and talkative. He tells me all of the time that I am his "best-friend" and "best-mom."

This week

Yes, we went swimming this week. Yes, it's the first week of March and it's hot enough to go swimming. Yes, it was at the Camelback (a fancy smancy resort in Scottsdale) and we had a blast. Yes, my 4 year-old who can swim is wearing a life-jacket because I'm too lazy to watch him.
In other news. while I was making dinner on Thursday Will got so excited about the food that he put his lip up to the pan on the stove and gave it a kiss. Now he has a fairly painful burn on his bottom lip. Boys also had haircuts on Friday... I will post them as soon as I take a picture. Let's just say it's shorter than I intended.

For Maria

Chocolate Mousse Pie

Mix together:

1 ½ c. crushed graham crackers

¼ c. brown sugar

1/8 t. nutmeg

1/3 c. melted butter

1 (1 oz.) square unsweetened chocolate, melted

Press into 9-inch pie pan and bake 350 for about 7 minutes. Do not overbake.

Filling:

6 oz. package of chocolate chips, melted

8 oz. cream cheese, softened

¾ c. light brown sugar

1 t. vanilla

1/8 t. salt

2 eggs

1 c. whipping cream, whipped

Combine the above ingredients, except the whipping cream. Once everything is mixed, GENTLY FOLD IN whipped cream. Do not over-mix. Pour into chilled crust. Chill 8 hours or overnight.

When asked to name my favorite chocolate dessert, this is it, hands-down. THE BEST PIE EVER.

The Fifty Nifty

Will has an obsession with geography. He can name every state in the US and many, many countries in the world. He's always bringing me his globe and asking "What country is this mom?" Sometimes it's embarrassing because I DON'T KNOW THE ANSWER. At Alex's school there is this mural of the US painted on the ground outside of the cafeteria. We walk by it every Friday as Will and I walk Alex to his classroom (He has therapy Friday morning and goes late to school.) Will could spend all day counting the states, pointing specific states out to me, and giving me details about certain ones (ex: Mom, I was born here! while standing on Texas.) On Friday, he sat his little bottom down on Oklahoma and informed me that this is where he would be living when he was a grown-up. Oklahoma? Really? Dude, I think I would rather live in AZ and that is saying A LOT. Also, this child will not look at me with a normal face when I try to take a picture of him. Thus the crazy-faced photos.

FHE

So sometimes we struggle with Family Home Evening. It's hard to get everything accomplished before bedtime on a normal night but Monday's are especially difficult. We have a pretty rigid bedtime routine: dinner, straight to tub, pj's, teeth-brushed, scriptures/prayers, Will to bed for stories, Alex to Mom and Dad's room for therapy, then quiet reading time, and bed. I'm not flexible with the order of things. I guess I just feel like I know what works and I don't feel like experimenting with other options. Also, my kids are exhausted at the end of the day and so am I. They (and I!) do best if they are in bed, lights out, before 7:30pm. This is impossible on Monday nights. My kids LOVE family home evening. Will makes suggestions at the dinner table EVERY night of what we should do for fhe. I am constantly explaining to him that it's only on Monday night. Anyway, Alex has been suggesting for months (since Christmas) that we make graham cracker cookies for fhe. Every week he suggests it, every week I have an excuse of why we can't do it. And let's be honest, there was no good reason. So I felt like mother of the year last week when we FINALLY made all of his dreams came true and made those cookies for our fhe treat. Why did it take me 2 months to listen? I don't know. I think I need to loosen up a bit.
ps-Will's face in the frosting? Not staged AT ALL.

Student of the Week

Alex was student of the week. He was SO PROUD of his poster, which was entirely his production- concept, design, execution. He had very specific ideas about this project. He created a book (in powerpoint) that gave details about his life. He wants to be an author when he grows up. He created a table of contents and the first section of his book was "I am a person." He chose to bring blueberry muffins to share with the class for a treat. He is such a serious little man and oh so smart. He is currently reading "Falling Up" by Shell Silverstien and thinks it is about the funniest thing he has ever heard in his life. You should hear the belly laughs. They are enough to make you lose it. I'm so proud of this boy.

The face I wake up to each day

At the mercy of his brother

This is what happens to the 3-year-old when the 5-year-old is left in charge while dad is at meetings and mom is sleeping the Sunday afternoon away. TIC-TAC-TOE, three in a row!

Things I'm Doing Right Now

...and all at the same time:
-overseeing homework duty
-preparing snack after snack after snack
-playing hide-n-go-seek with my 3-year-old
-planning a birthday lunch for a friend
-texting my young women
-scrubbing stains out of wet laundry
-folding dry laundry
-making dinner
-blogging (I had to record this so Alan can know how I spend my afternoons....and why I sometimes seem frazzled by the time he walks in at 7pm).

Woodworking

Alex's class has been doing a unit on woodworking. He built himself quite a masterpiece when all was said and done. A friend snapped this photo for me of him mid-project. It hurts my eyes to see how much it hurts his eyes to be outside without his sunglasses and hat....yet he is still the cutest thing on this earth. I adore this boy.