six for sunday

nothing super big going on around here, so for now, all i can post are my random bits of life...

one. i'm so happy that chuck and american idol are back!

happy that captain awesome has played a bigger role this season so i have more time to look at him.

i almost forgot how yummy he is.

we already have a few favorites on idol, but i'm glad it's hollywood week coming up, i'm so done with the auditions.

two AND three. we should've bought ethan an ipod for christmas too. he's constantly pestering the teenagers to borrow theirs so he can play the games.

AND, i found these woody costume pjs online for so cheap i couldn't pass them up, i knew they would be a hit. he's been wearing them around the house with his cowboy boots non stop.

what's funnier than a toddler dressed as woody playing his sister's pink ipod on the couch?

four.  i bought a dyson! after years and years of needing a new vacuum every eight months or so (seriously), i finally talked rich into picking one of these sweet babies up.

i was so excited about the new purchase, that yesterday i vacuumed every inch of the house including dusty mouldings, blinds, window seals, cobwebs, and ceiling fans. i had to empty the canister SIX times. gross, but also glorious.

five. three words: good. mail. goodness. the first delivery, were these red farberware pots and pans that i've been coveting over forever. they're so gorgeous!

thank you april who found the killer deal and my mom who agreed to go in on them with her! second, my cute friend nicki spoiled me rotten with a fun box full of music, treats, home decor and delightful personal touches. i loved that she stuck this fortune to the outside of the box.

i'm so lucky to have such cute ladies in my life!

six. one of the best ideas i've ever had. last week at sunday dinner, i told the teenagers that they were going to be in charge of choosing a dinner that week, and that they would responsible for helping to prepare it. i'm realizing that although the kids have some cooking experience, taylor's leaving for college in 2.5 years (what the heck?!) and i probably ought to step it up in the kitchen department. taylor can't afford to lose any calories from his diet.

so this week, we had shepherd's pie, chicken & veggie stir fry and homemade pizza all prepared by teenagers. the best part is thoroughly enjoying my time with them in the kitchen.

the end.

simple joy

this simple, sweet daisy balloon made an appearance on my mailbox today. i love seeing balloons tied to people's mailboxes. they say, "look at me, someone at this house has a reason to celebrate!" the person who left it was not sending me belated birthday wishes - my initital thought when i saw it. it was attached to a thank you note for a young women activity i helped co-ordinate last week. the person who left it also has no idea how much i love daisies, and that made it even more fun to receive it. i'm definitely giving a balloon the next time i need to thank someone. what is it about a simple little balloon tied to your mailbox that makes you feel so special?

better than good mail

wednesday last week was a bear of a day. april came to be the other mom in the house for me and help me run a million different directions. the day ranged from everything to ortho appointments, hair cut for ethan, cc meeting, a track meet, and...you get the idea. oh, and when i got home our back yard was under water because of a break in the sprinkler line. lucky me. so somewhere in the middle of all the craziness, i checked my mail box and found this fantastic mail from janae. fantastic because it was way better than good. she sent it to say thanks for hosting the lemon frosting lesson with the blogger moms, and said i should probably have these things to help the next time i made it...a mini grater and a lemon squeezer! i was soooo excited! it was extremely thoughtful of her and brightened my whole entire day! saturday allie and i put the new tools to good use and made strawberry lemonade cupcakes (patsy's recipe). they were so great to have and use, i'm officially hooked on both. thanks janae - i promise to get a lot of miles out of these things! you're wonderful!

cupcake redemption

so you may remember the cupcake fiasco of earlier this month, i myself am still trying to forget about it. i came a little closer to accomplishing this goal yesterday with a little help from a good mail package from kristy that i forgot to post about. she sent me these darling spring candies and cupcake papers and encouraged me and allie to try again! i have been craving lemon cake so i decided to make lemon cupcakes for easter dessert. i chickened out and made the cupcakes from a lemon cake mix because i am still leery of trying any new recipes at the moment (do you blame me?). but, i definitely wanted homemade frosting, but i couldn't find any kind of lemon butter cream, only lemon icing and that definitely would not do - i am definitely a butter cream kind of girl. so, i invented my OWN lemon butter cream recipe! yup, i did. and let me say, oh my heavenly goodness, they were fantastic! i will definitely be posting this frosting on the cooking blog for any other lemon lovers such as myself. and the decorating, with help from kristy's package, was like something store bought! thanks to all my decorators, who were lauren, emily, allie and makenna. ok, and i piped the frosting. lemony goodness. they tasted even better today when i wasn't so full from easter dinner. so kristy, thanks for the good mail package and for having faith in me to pull off some cute AND yummy cupcakes.

**have you ever made up your own recipe?

how do you feel about lemon desserts?**

the truth about this week

hi my name is wende and i am a blogging lame-o this week. the truth is, it's been kind of a bleh week and i have been lurking and commenting on other's blogs but never really felt like i had anything to blog about myself. it started out ok, i loved have everyone home for the holiday, especially because we stayed in our pjs all day and played board games and a wii family bowling tournament. this is turning into a really fun day-off tradition around here. i started our friend cooking blog which you can check out here and so i was inspired to bake that day too. but then, tuesday we missed play group and stayed inside all day because ethan has another dreadful cold. the whole week has been pretty much in doors with an onry two year old. so as i was lurking on some other blogs, i noticed jill's spt - pick me up post in which she talks about how when she needs a pick me up, she sends good mail because it makes her feel so good. well duh! why didn't i think of that? i was totally inspired by this so i went to work making a bunch of spring cards and such and by the time i had to go pick up allie from school, i had a stack of good mail kristi-style in recycled food boxes, and my mood totally improved! i also lurked on bakerella's blog, who patsy has got me addicted to lately. i was inspired by her blog about the cupcake bites so i bought the ingredients and decided that it would make me so happy to create something yummy and out of the ordinary this weekend since there's not much on the calendar. just two examples of how blogging has totally improved my life. seriously, it really has.

** how has blogging improved your life?

did you know that the FDA now strongly recommends NOT giving cold medicine to children under five? ahhhh!**

attitude of gratitude

Church was so great today, one thing I always love about church is that it always seems to be exactly what I needed that week. This week was no different, nothing awe inspiring necessarily but such a good feeling and I enjoyed each meeting. During sacrament we listened to our two Bishopbric counselors speak and they were just fantastic. One spoke about setting goals for the new year and gave some suggestions. There were several that I intend on implementing, but then he suggested beginning to develope an attitude of gratitude. He suggested writing thank you notes for the people that do kind things for you and randoms notes of kindness. You know how you can sometimes feel depressed in sacrament meeting because you know that you need to work whatever the talk topic is about? Well, let me just say that inside I was shouting, "I DO THIS! I'M A GREAT THANK YOU WRITER!" and I send "just because mail" all the time! Like I said, not really trying to brag here, it just felt good to know that this is already a huge aspect of my life, and I love it. I love saying thank you, I am just so grateful for everything, so overwhelmed at the blessings that are mine. With that said, I had my kids write their Christmas thank yous this afternoon because I knew the next few days will fly by and then we're back to the grind, bleh, I'm not ready. So of course I sat with them and wrote out my own pile and will you just look at all this good mail! I'm so excited to put it in the box with the flag up. Don't you think it makes the post man smile to see that much good mail? If I were a postman it would make me happy. **As a side note, I'm not going to call it "just because mail" any more, it's now going to be referred to as Random Notes of Kindness, I love the play on the Random Acts of Kindess phrase and it just sounds so much cuter. RNK from now on.

friends and neighbors

The tree is filling up! That must mean I'm almost out of time. (by the way isn't this the most awesome thing, my sister in law Jenny made it including sewing all of the little sequence on by hand! The picture doesn't do it justice, it's so detailed and beautiful. It's my kids' favorite part of Christmas - thanks Jen!) This week is flying by but luckily because I've been so productive! YAY! Yesterday I spent the entire day in my pajamas, which means it was a great day of getting tons done, no slacking here. I have been working on and off for the last several days on friend treats, neighbor gifts and all the sort of stuff. Yesterday was buckle down and finish it off including delivering. Since I document all the details of my life now, I thought to take photographs of all the fun things we did. Allie gave these cute jars of gumballs which were inspired by Patsy's enrichment table and when I cut the tags out I used scalloped scissors which kind of reminded me of Michelle's darling tags that I keep reading about everywhere! I must say that the scallop made the tags, so cute. The boys were way too manly to give cutie jars of gumballs so they opted for bottles of Sprite (which I got on sale super cheap at Thanksgiving time) and a smarties launcher - have you seen these things? They're sort of like a Pez dispenser but instead they hold smarties, you can pull back the lever and actually shoot them across the room. Actually called KLIKs. Big hit with the boys' friends. For piano, guitar, primary teachers and youth leaders we gave out the yummie pretzel hugs that I discovered last week, several were delivered before I thought to take a picture. For my neighbor gifts, Lauri and I teamed up and did the same thing since we don't have the same neighbors and it was so fun! We made these little vinyl blocks that say JOY attached with a picture of our family on a tag (not pictured) that I made in photoshop and printed at Costco in wallet size - easy! and cheap! It took about two total hours to deliver everything, and thanks to the DVD player in the van, Ethan was an angel until the last three minutes. But it's DONE, all delivered, that is such a good feeling! Today I need to finish up my sister in law gifts which I'm excited to post after Christmas, wrap up their teacher gifts to take to school tomorrow, deliver visiting teaching gifts and then I'm officially done - minus the wrapping for Christmas morning, but whatever. Yesterday when I was in my pajamas and looking so cute, not, April brought me a fun a little surprise!She knows that I love peppermint and hot chocolate and the carmel apple cider is from Pier 1. Then, the best part are these darling daisy mugs! Anyone who knows me well knows, I can hardly pass up a darling daisy and the funniest thing is that I saw these dishes the other day when I was at Pier 1 and I thought strongly about asking for the whole set for Christmas. So I was super excited to see my very own daisy mugs! I am feeling like a heel because we agreed NOT to exchange gifts this year, but April is kind of a rebel wanted to do something anyway. Cute girl! Patsy stopped by with a package for under the tree, I am excited to open the gift "that changed her life" on Christmas morning....hmmmm. Ok, this is a forever long post, I need to do the dishes, I should've photographed my kitchen when I was done with everything yesterday. Let's just say that we didn't eat dinner until 8:30 and it was cold cereal. Nice. But productive and that counts right?

**do you take TWO hours to deliver everything?**

**do you have a favorite advent calendar?**

**how do you feel about daisies?**

photoshop queen

Ok, I'm not really the photoshop queen, but over the last few days I've made enough digital Christmas cards that I'm feeling like the digital queen for sure! It's been way fun though, good experience for me, plus I get to hang out with all my cute friends and sister-in-laws. I'm not going to post any of their pictures because that would spoil the fun of them sending them out. But I will show you my proud accomplishment over the weekend... My Christmas cards are finally done, and I mailed them out yesterday, YAY! I did not take a treat to the postal workers, I'm definitely going to be there later this season so I will do it then. I'm SOOO glad to have that crossed off my list. Something about having cards done make me feel like I can take a deep breath and now enjoy the holidays. I love having them done early, and we're still in the single digits for December so, good job to self. Good job!

spoiled rotten

My dear sweet friend Patsy is spoiling me rotten! Earlier this week when I was being a terrible blogger, I received this good mail package from Patsy that totally made my day! I especially loved the mints wrapped in cute paper, how fun is that?! And let me just plug those peppermint candy kisses right now, if you haven't tried them, you must. Of course the best part of any good mail is the great note telling you what a great friend you are and how much you are loved. And you believe it too because why would someone take the time to put together such a great good mail pkg if they didn't love you? Of couse they love you! I put the note up on my desk to remind me that I am loved and it was the big pick me up in the middle of an exhausting day that I totally needed. So, before I even have time to write out a thank you note, I get MORE good mail from Patsy today!I squealed when I opened the envelope because I have been coveting these good mail labels made by Jill and Patsy sent them to me in my favorite color!So great! The biggest blessing of all this blog stuff has been my friendship with Patsy, I just adore this girl! The point in blogging about this is to encourage some good mail from my readers, it just makes you and the person you send it to, feel so good, how can it not? Now I have TWO really nice notes from Patsy sitting on my desk reminding me that I am loved, and spoiled rotten.

the (not) lost art

Patsy told me I needed to read Jill's blog and I'm so glad I did! She is darling and she inspired me with her Just Because Wednesdays. This is a day to write a note to someone telling them how great they are "just because" and for no other apparent reason. I was tempted to dive in and write everyone I know a just because note but I resisted and decided I would knock people off the list a few at a time. I did not take pictures of the cards because I want the people I send them to to be surprised but I just want to say how great it made me feel to do this! I know it will lift the spirits of the ones I sent them to, but it surprised me by lifting my spirits too! What a great idea. She is also the queen of good mail and this is something I have always enjoyed my whole life (the idea of sending something in the mail to brighten someone's day) and it's nice to know that it's not a lost art. So, if you have a minute, check out Jill's blog, I loved is so much I listed it with my blog faves on the side. And take a second today to write someone a note "just because". Good night!

what's that white stuff?

Saturday was a wonderful day, we were able to attend Charity's baptism and it was beautiful of course. I had the chance to spend an hour or so with her a few days ago to do some baptism pictures for her.She is a special girl and we're glad to have her in our family. Josh came with Sydney and the twins BY HIMSELF! He's crazy, we all agreed but we all sure enjoyed holding those babies and telling him to enjoy the break. Matt said it's a Moore thing not to want to accept help from anyone, he may be right but we did our best to break Josh of the guilt. I can't believe how big the twins are getting, I should've snapped a few pictures of them, but Allie was in charge of the camera for most the day so all of the pictures look like this.Nice Allie, very reverent feeling! :) We came home after the baptism to change into warm slippers and spend a nice rainy Saturday in doors doing things around the house and eating soup for lunch. I love cold rainy days like this, it's such a good excuse to not have to go anywhwere...In fact, I spent the afternoon working on some thank you notes that I have been meaning to send, just look at all that GOOD MAIL! And notice my super-cute return address labels that I ordered from good things along with some fun personalized cards. Anyway, I passed by one of our windows and was SHOCKED to see SNOW!Holy crap! Snow? I've lived here for 14 plus years now, and I can't remember it ever snowing in September! None of it stuck and it turned back into rain a little later on, but for like a solid hour, we had giant white flakes that couldn't be mistaken for sleet or slush or anything but the fluffy white stuff. This picture of our backyard doesn't do it justice, it was really coming down heavy, I just couldn't believe it! What do you do? Later we did brave the weather to do dinner at Lonestar with the Merrill's which was just what the doctor ordered, yummy steak and mashed potatoes. Mmmmm...no picture because both of our husbands, and probably Lauri, would've rolled their eyes. People are getting tired of posing for blog pictures!