Kirk family pictures

I did some family pictures for some friends of mine - the Kirks. They have three adorable grandchildren.

You need to watch out for these cute ones... Brinley was perfectly happy to let me take pictures of her, but on HER terms. Which means "not in a group setting".


These two redheads, Annekin and Camden were much more cooperative.

And I did bribe Brinley to sit still for a minute (tootsie rolls were not so effective, she wanted dollar bills).

We did get a few good pictures with Brinley in them but they are more of a Photoshop miracle than good photography skills.

Still... she is adorable.

Snickedydoo

We haven't had a good recipe in a while! Too much running and not enough cookies. And that, dear readers, is why I'm the only person on earth who can run 12 miles a week and GAIN weight.

Uh-oh, my secret is out. I'm a compulsive baker. The solution is this: I need to get to know my neighbors better so I can share the cookies with them. If Joe will let them get out of his sight. This is one of his favorite cookies and Minnie loves to make them with me.

Snickerdoodles...
1 cup white sugar
1/2 cup brown sugar
1/2 cup butter, softened
1 tsp vanilla
2 eggs
1 cup wheat flour
1 1/2 cup white flour
1 tsp cream of tartar
1/2 tsp baking soda
1/4 tsp salt

2 Tbsp sugar
2 tsp cinnamon
2 Tbsp raw sugar

Heat the oven to 400 degrees. Combine sugars and margarine, beat until fluffy. Add vanilla and eggs, blend well. Add flours, tartar, soda and salt, mix well. You should have a stiff dough, add more flour if you don't.

In a small bowl, combine the 2 Tbsp sugar and 2 tsp cinnamon. Leave the raw sugar in a small bowl of its own. Shape dough into 1-inch balls and roll in the cinnamon-sugar. Press the top of the ball into the raw sugar and place on greased cookie sheet, sugar-side-up.

If you believe it, Minnie rolled out half of these cookies herself and I can't tell which are hers and which are mine. She is quite a little baker.

Bake at 400 degrees for 8-10 minutes or until set. Immediately remove from cookie sheets. I like mine warm with ice-cold milk.

The last bit of summer

School is around the corner and the days are (finally!) starting to cool off a little. It's the last little piece of summer.

I hope you're out enjoying it.

Sick leave

Sorry for the lack of interesting posts. Everyone in our house has an excellent cold this week. The kids seem better today but I feel terrible. Fortunately, there's nothing like flashback Muppet videos to keep them entertained. The current favorite? Swedish Chef. Bork bork bork!




And if you're looking for a song to get stuck in your head for an entire week, here you go.



How do my kids love the classic Muppets more than anything new on TV? Not that I blame them. Jim Henson just had good taste.

What would YOU like?

I've been asked to put together a once-a-month group for the 30-something women in our ward. They weren't really clear on the specifics - this was the direction I got: "Something that the younger women would enjoy doing together, we especially want to involve the women who work in the Primary and Young Women so they feel like they're a part of Relief Society."

I immediately called some friends to feel out their thoughts. The first ideas we had were:
Scrapbooking
Card-making
General crafting
Fitness (yoga or a walking group)
Homemakey things (easy recipes)

Does anyone else have some great ideas for a group? What would entice YOU to come to a women's group once a month?

AND if you feel like killing an hour instead of doing what you're supposed to (i.e. thinking up church group ideas or writing a Sunday talk) scope out your next birthday/shower/wedding cake at cakewrecks.blogspot.com. You'll either laugh until you cry... or maybe barf.

Potty training success

Minnie was fairly easy to potty train. Little Man is proving to be much more difficult. He goes through phases where he is really into it, then he switches his attention to something else. So I don't know when The Time will actually be. I'm really looking forward to it though!

So the timing is just right for this great Huggies Potty Training Success giveaway over at Vanilla Joy. If you're getting ready to potty train, check it out!

Family Pictures

This is Suzette and her 4 beautiful kids. They were so fun and easy to take pictures of. We went to the Young Living Lavender Farm - there were some awesome picture spots there.

The two beautiful girls.


And two extra-handsome boys!


If you've never been to a lavender farm, you should really try it! There was a lot of interesting information and the lavender is gorgeous. I even got to try lavender ice cream! Almost all of the lavender is harvested this year but I am making a note to take the kids back next summer.

Blog header

I did a blog header for a personal blog at mysimplestories.blogspot.com. This was my first attempt at designing in Illustrator, after getting some fabulous pointers from my friend Cicada.


I have a style that is really linear and ordered so I'm trying to branch out and do things that are more flowy and artistic. What do you think?

My precious

I am so sad! On my list of "things I have not found since we've moved" is the armband and case for my iPod Nano. So when I go running I have been tucking the iPod in the strap of my bra where it is nice and safe and cozy.Well, apparently not as safe as I'd hoped. When I got home I noticed that the iPod was dead. Figuring that it had discharged I plugged it in. Except... nothing. No power, no response, no nothing. I don't know if it was heat or a little bit of moisture (there's no condensation behind the screen or anything). My poor precious iPod is no more.

Anyone out there have a used Nano they are getting rid of?

Welcome to the neighborhood

We have lived in this house for 3 months now - so it seems the perfect time to get a Welcome Packet in the mail. These always claim to have good coupons for local businesses and money-saving things. I'm no marketing expert but that's what I would put in them. I don't know who put this packet together but I would bet that they've never moved before. This packet contained (among the usual 22 ads/coupons/special offers/just-for-you deals for satellite TV, phone service, orthodontics and lawn care):

Customize-your-own-checks service. Nothing says classy adult like Tweety Bird checks.

Coupons for acne cream

Summer Sensations romance novel book club membership (because when you're moving, you pretty much have unlimited free time to read trashy novels).

A limited time offer for The Munster's Halloween Village Highly Breakable Holiday Decor Set. Conveniently it doesn't say anywhere on the order form how much the item costs. Yipee, it's practically free! I'll order 12.

And my favorite - a Collector's Edition of Huckleberry Finn. Regularly $39.95, yours for only $6!. I bet there are NO strings attached here. Besides... what new homeowner doesn't need their own luxurious volume of the Mark Twain classic?

Newest running accessory

Since I finished the 5K without dying I decided to reward myself with something I've had my eye on for a while. I've been searching the classified ads and sales for a good double jogging stroller. Lately we have been jogging around the neighborhood pushing the kids in our borrowed, 8-year old, 50 pound tandem stroller. If you can even get them IN the stroller without going the rounds over who gets the back seat, you then have to push around a 90-pound behemoth that is always pulling hard to the left. My shoulders are going to look like Joe's before long. So finally I got him to research the side-by-side joggers and he settled on this beauty.


Incidentally, after spending the morning at Babies R Us, can I just say NO FAIR!? There were not this many cute things when I had babies (not really that long ago). Look at this! And this and this! Apparently the new trend of "babies as Hollywood starlet accessories" has made the baby-gear designers really step it up. When I was pregnant with Minnie you basically had three color choices for everything: Basic Black, Navy n' Khaki (makes me think of a prep school uniform) and Winnie the Pooh Pastel. So we own a lot of black stuff. But now... pack-n-plays, bedding, strollers, bouncy seats... everything is so darn cute and fashionable!

Anyway, back to our stroller. How cool is this!? Minnie was highly offended that we didn't purchase the ridiculously overpriced Maclaren umbrella stroller that came in her favorite colors of brown and pink. I'm sorry, but for that price the stroller had better come with a jet propulsion system or a private jacuzzi or something.

My secondary motive here is this: we are going to Disneyland in October. Last time we took two small umbrella strollers and while they are easy to get in and out of cars, airports and doorways... there's still no place to PUT anything! Hanging a diaper bag off the back made the whole stroller tip over whenever a kid jumped out of it. Plus I spent an hour sitting under the Tarzan tree with the stroller tipped back in my lap while Little Man napped.


Our new stroller one has reclining seats, storage baskets, cup holders and even a speaker that connects to your iPod! I think the only thing that could make it better is a 3-inch-thick, toddler-proof plastic barrier between the two seats, perhaps with a speaker that repeats subliminal messages like "don't hit your brother don't hit your brother don't hit your brother..." Because, as handy as this is, I definitely foresee problems having them side-by-side. Well, either way, I'm really excited about this and I can't wait to get out and use it!