The Computer is Back!

Blogging has been so hit and miss for me, I promise I will write once a week, then I don't... or in this case our computer breaks, and it takes more than 3 months to fix. (That's a whole 'nother story...) and now I'm back.  :)  This summer has been busy, but fun, and I'm glad to be able to resume journaling on the blog, since I am too lazy to actually write in a journal.  Sad, but true.  Typing is so much faster!  So hello again, dear blog.  I hope we can become good friends once again.  :)

Sisters

I got to see my long-lost Canadian sister and her hubby Blake this last week! :)  We had a blast! We went shooting, had lots of great food, laughed, (Sisters... da da da da da... then I ate a crab... Oh look bubbles! Hahaha!)  played games, laughed, goofed around like siblings should, and to top it off, we got to play with her adorable french bulldog puppy Larz!  (I miss his smushy face!)

Me and my sisters Nicole (left) and Melissa (right)  <3

The best part for me was that I got to hang out with BOTH my little sisters when we had a girls' lunch and then shopping!!  She is now back in Canada, and I miss her already.  Robert misses his auntie "Yissa" and asks where she is.  :(  We love you Missy and Blake, and we're planning a trip to visit you this summer!  xoxo

My Little Cake Boss

Robert loves to be in the kitchen! We make cupcakes, and cookies, and all sorts of fun goodies.  :)  His favorite show is Cake Boss, he asks me almost daily to make different things,

"Mom, let's make a aayranosauwus (tyrannosaurus) cuh-cake!"
"Mom, I wanna a make a SHAAARK cake!"
"Mom, a make a WOBOT cuh-cake!" 

It is SO cute!  I love my little baker boy, and I love that he is such a great helper, and so creative.  He will also take pots and pans, and cover them with blankets (like covering a cake in fondant)  and then since he learns in the show that the cakes are really heavy, he has me "help" him, and he says, "whoa, dis cake is BIIIG, I'm so STWONG!"  Then he pretends to cut up the big cake, and we all eat it.  It is delicious.   ;) 
 Well, for Christmas, he got a little play-kitchen, and I got him some plastic cupcakes, and bakery items.  As much as I love to bake, we can't really bake cake every single day, as we're not an actual bakery... haha!   We make cake out of play-dough and I let him use the piping bag and tip to frost the "pretend cupcakes", he loves it!

Here is Robert being the "Cake Boss" and making "Wobot" cupcakes :)
We have a super-cute video, but Blogger is being uncooperative.

Activities!

May I just say that I am pretty proud of myself for not slacking on my resolutions this year, one of which was to do at least one meal and one kiddo project from Pinterest every week.  I have been exceeding the minimum lately, but we'll see how long I can keep it up!  Some projects checked off the list this month:

Peanut-butter bird feeders (We have lots of Black-Capped Chickadees coming for breakfast each morning!)
Making Paper Snowflakes
Paint-Stamp Apples


Some favorite Pinterest  meals:  (Wes and Robert Approved!)
Chicken Satay
Sweet Curry Butternut Squash Soup
Sweet potato hummus
Roasted Vegetable and Ricotta Pizza
Chicken Gyros
Martha Stewart's Mac n' Cheese (Known lovingly in the foodie community as "Mac n' Crack" haha!)

This is going to be a great year, I can feel it!  :)  A toast to new beginnings.  Cheers! 

Down comes one, down comes all.

So... It's been an illness-filled couple of weeks at the Snow house. Lots of chicken-noodle, cough drops and Disney movies.  Germs have a mean domino-effect.  Knock one down, knock 'em all down.  So I was the first germ-domino.  Pneumonia.  My friend Kaitlin was SOOO very, very, kind  to make dinner for us, as I was out for the count, and Wes was busy with work and school. You rock, buddy!  A week of antibiotics later, I feel much better, and Wes and Robert weren't sick *hooray!* so I thought that their immune systems had successfully defeated the germs.  Unfortunately,  I celebrated too soon.  Those germs are sneaky little buggers, and I ended up with 2 very sick boys.  It was especially difficult because these particular germs are vindictive I guess, and just had to get us right as Brian and Niki and their two cute girls came to visit from Texas this last weekend.  Major bummer.  Robert seems to have just gotten  little cold, but Wes really took a hit.  I hope that Bear continues to ward this off. *Fingers crossed*

After 3 days of Wes getting one or two hours of sleep, (which does not help when you're trying to fight germs...) still trying to work and go to school, (Also, not helping..) while getting worse and worse, I finally forced him (Yep, forced, I threatened to call in for him if he didn't...) to take the day off and go to the doctor.  Wes just got back-- he has a really nasty ear-infection, pink-eye, and sinus infection, and is on 875 mg of Augmentin, which are giant white horse-pills, poor man.  (I did kind of laugh when I saw the giant bottle!)  We are hoping that the meds work quickly, so that we are able to spend some time with family this week. I am grateful that at least we didn't get sick at the exact same time, so that we could take turns taking care of each-other.  :)  And I'm praying we will get better soon!    

Little Rays of Sunshine

I hear little footsteps run across our apartment in the middle of the night that stop at our doorway...
R:   Mom! Mommy! Mom! MoooooOOOm!

Me:  (waking up)  Whaaaat?
R:  (cups his hand over his mouth and makes a growling sound)  Uh-Oh..... Mommy, my tummy is HUNGRY! (makes the growling sound again) It's LOUD! (Points to his tummy)
Me: Well, it's bedtime, can your tummy wait until breakfast?
R:  (Thinks for a bit) No... my toes are way cold! See?? (lifts up his leg to show me his toes) 
Me:  (laughing) really? Hmmmm... well let's do something about that. Your toes will be warm under your blankets.  (I take him back to bed, give him a pretzel stick, and he goes back to sleep). 

I've been laughing about it for days now.  Too cute. I love 3-year old logic.  :)  

Dragon and a Blizzard

Well, it's the end of January... I can't believe my last post was in October! (That's pretty sad...) Life is crazy, as always, but I am starting fresh this year, with a goal of blogging at least once a week.  Journaling has never been a strong point of mine... so I am going to start slow.   ;)   I have a bucket list of resolutions and can't wait to check them all off! (And blog about them!) It is exciting to see a new year ahead full of opportunities, and potential.   I think blogging will help me keep all my resolutions, knowing I have to stay accountable and write about it. :) So here's to a new year!

It's the Year of the Dragon--supposedly it is a year of good-luck and positive energy.  I'm banking on that.   ;)  It's already off to a great start, by running the Chinese New Year Dragon Race on Saturday with my friend Camille.  I was sick as a dog, (and still am... I'm going to the doctor today) but I ran it anyways, in my VFF (vibram five fingers) in the pouring rain, and in 20*F cold.  It was Camille's first race, and she did great! I felt pretty awesome that I toughed it out, and Bear had a lot of fun playing with cute little William (Camille's son) and dancing in the dragon dance!

The race ended inside the Heber City Rec Center, Thank heavens.. it was so miserable outside.  And the day almost ended in a stressful disaster, but we had luck on our side.  It was raining pretty hard during the race, which wasn't too bad, but right after the last runners had crossed the finish line, it started snowing, like crazy!  The wind started blowing, and all I could think about was how glad I was I didn't have to run in a blizzard!! What I didn't think about right away was that we had to drive up through the Canyon to get home.... which of course was not plowed... so... our little car was struggling sadly up the steep snowy roads... we made it about 20 minutes in before the tires started spinning, and we slid off to the side of the road.  Then it was a waiting game. We were worried we would be stuck for hours and hours... sometimes they just close the road altogether, and don't plow it, so we were a little stressed.  But to our surprise, a plow came by about 30 minutes later, so we booked it back onto the road (right after it passed) and were able to drive a freshly plowed road nearly the rest of the way home! We were really grateful.  We were especially grateful when we heard over the radio that the canyon was closed shortly after we got through it.  We were definitely counting our blessings that day, that we didn't get in an accident, we didn't slide OFF the road, or get stuck in the blizzard for hours, and that we got home safely.  Lesson learned: we bought chains at Wal-Mart on the way home... so that even if the road isn't plowed in the future, we are prepared!!  :D