What's cooking in your kitchen?

Okay, so my friend Sandy got me in the mood to bake yesterday. You all know how I love to bake, and she found these awesome dessert recipes, of course I just had to try! I was talking to Shavonne and my mom this morning while I was making these beauties and got them in the mood to bake too! I tell you...it's contagious! Shavonne's pictures are much prettier than mine, because, as usual, I was in a huge rush. This Thursday is a "Service Auction" for Enrichment Night and I usually bake something as my service, so I was trying out a few recipes to see what I should "Auction". I decided try to make the oreo/nutterbutter truffles and then decided that the Chocolate Chip Crispy Treats also looked too amazing to pass up. After I was finished with the 50 or so truffles, and 12 of the Chocolate Chip Crispy treats, I called Phil and asked if his office would be willing to try them! Luckily they were ready and willing. So I was in a rush to drop them off at his office for an afternoon snack right before I had to pick up the kids! Luckily he's only a few minutes from home!) Anyway, these are the snapshots I took, right before I ran out the door!

Dancing in the rain!

On my way home from picking up the kids from school, I noticed some "T-Storm" activity just south of our house! I knew we only had a few minutes until we would be engulfed in the storm so I grabbed my camera so that I could snap a few shots of the beautiful cumulonimbus clouds that were quickly surrounding our neighborhood. I know our Monsoon storms are growing to an end, so I let the kids hang out in the craziness that was about to begin. All these pictures were taken within about a 20 minute time period. Dad...I knew you might appreciate these!

They're better when you can flip through them fast, anyway...within a couple of minutes the downdrafts caught up with us and we had some pretty hefty gusts of wind! Boston was holding an airplane...you can't tell but the propellers on this thing were flying! Unfortunately, the camera makes them seem entirely still!?

Check out the clouds below...don't they look friendly? It was totally sunny to the west of us, so the sun was able to highlight everything. It was pretty cool.

Yes, that's my child wearing a shirt, diaper, and mix matched shoes! I couldn't find her shorts before we left to go pick up the kids...so I took her like that. She found shoes, because she's already learned you don't go outside without shoes on unless you want your feet to melt! Smart kid! No one was driving by, so we were good!

I took this picture of the down pour through my doorway of the sun illuminating all the rain drops! It looks like it was snowing! My kids had so much fun! The rain only lasted about 5 minutes or so, but the kids had a blast getting wet without being cold!

Bowling for Boston's 7th!

It was definitely a Happy Birthday for Boston! He got calls and even a text message in the morning from our out of state fam, he was pretty excited. For some reason he kept thinking when you said Happy Birthday, that you must have sung a song too??! He would tell everyone, "Thank you for singing me a song!" Whether they did or not, it was pretty sweet!

We decided that since Paris' party was at "Amazing Jakes" we would let him have a "friend" party too! He really wanted to go bowling, so we decided to try an AMF Alley in Peoria. I have to say it was pretty nice! He was able to invite a couple of his friends and then we decided to have their families come too, so it would be fun for us "old" people too!

Madison wanted to bowl so bad! So we let her hold one...with a little help...
Then we showed her how to push the ball, she couldn't stand the thought of it leaving though...
But she couldn't resist watching to see it's fate! It was so funny! She was very nervous watching it slowly roll down the very long lane! She probably had a full minute to minute and a half of watching this thing roll! We didn't think about what we were doing at the time, but we bowled 8 people on each lane, one for the kids, one for the adults...okay talk about the longest game in history! It took us 2 hours to finish both the games! Atleast we had fun! After the pizza and bowling, we threw in a cupcake cake for good measure! Wow, talk about mouth staining entertainment! That frosting was way yummy, but super dangerous! We had fun taking pictures of everyone eating their neat cupcakes! We're so excited we went, and we'll have to plan a bowling date night soon! Keep your calendars open! It's been years since we've bowled and I have to say...it was really fun!

This one is of my friends Sandy (her son Ryan), Kim and I. Holly was there too, but left earlier and missed out on the photo op! We'll catch up with her later!

Girls at home!

Hanging out...
Then she starts to head a little left... Oh...and she doesn't recover from this one! See the lean gets her everytime!
Big sister Madison was to the rescue!

We had a few spare moments and Seattle was in "prime" picture form! She hadn't drooled or spit up on her new outfit...yet, so I thought I'd get a few shots of her sitting by the couch.
Of course Madison had to get in the photo shoot too and found a flower that she had to have in her hair. (This might be Sky's?) Oh yeah and that headband is her "princess" headband. You might not be able to see, but it has small jewels inside of it, so of course she was wearing it! She looks pretty sweet. We know Madison needs to get rid of her "Passy" but we're letting them each just get "lost" one by one. This is her last one...we think. She's getting pretty good at finding them in her moments of "need". The nice thing is that she won't steal Seattle's because it's a different type that for some reason grosses her out beyond all reason! We don't know why. We've seen her fall asleep a couple of times and feel around for a "passy" by her and she'll grab Seattle's by mistake, take a half suck, and then gag and spit it out, all with her eyes closed! It's so silly!

For some reason the flash didn't go off on this one...so it's all grainy! It would have been way cute...oh well you get the idea!

Yeah, Yeah...I know..."SHE LOOKS JUST LIKE PHIL!" Good thing he's hot, because otherwise that could really pose a problem for her!

5 months already?

The past five months have just flown by! This week she has really started to perfect her sitting up alone skills. She still starts to lean to the left or right and then over- corrects and usually falls after about a minute or two, but she's getting pretty good. We just make sure to have lots of helping hands and pillows close at all times! She's also getting better at eating solids! She ate most of the stage 1 jar of pears I fed to her (thanks Shavonne for the recommendation), which is a huge improvement from the first couple of times I tried to feed her! Phil and I decided to go shopping while the kids were at Basketball Practice and got her a couple of new outfits so she can model her new 5 month old looks! Phil hates BW pictures and he hated the flower...he said it would be like taking a picture of him with a Basketball on his head...so we let her eat the flower so you can see her face without the flower...just for him!! I hope he sees this and loves his flowerless pictures. (Personally, I love the flower! Thanks Shavonne!)

My New Plants

I love lots of color in a yard, so naturally living in Phoenix, you have to create your own color. I decided to take the corner of our front yard and turn it into a little section of plants, shrubs, and flowers. So far, so good! I planted these last Friday and I'm happy to report that they're all still alive. It hasn't been easy with the 109's we've been having, but I've been out to give them water every day until the drip system can take over. The rocks are going...sometime hopefully soon, we'll be rolling out sod, but until then, I'll just keep pruning and planting, until my trees are big enough to shade everything! I was on the phone with my mom and Sarah when I was planting these things with a mere 51% humidity! Sarah was pretty impressed since it was only 71% humidity in South Carolina. I can take the heat...I just hate humid heat! I think with the humidity/temperature index. We were only a 1 degree difference from eachother! Anyway, here's the pictures I promised them...because I was so proud of myself!