boy stuff

i wish you could all be a fly on my wall this morning to listen to my cute boys. gideon and i were up before the other two kids since they slept in this morning. when they got up, both boys came out of their room at full speed with stories. no 'hi mom' or anything. apparently ammon dreamed about being a police officer when he grows up and he wants to capture the bad guys.

zenock said when he's a police officer like ammon he's going to get a bad guy in each hand and smash them together. then zenock starts talking about which three princesses he is going to protect; his cousin izabella, and friends lexie and kimball. then he told me that i should be yoshi, even though yoshi is a boy.........and then he realized in the mario kart game there is a pink yoshi, so i could be her instead.

and that's how our weekend begins.

some favorite things

the last several weeks we have been having computer issues thanks to a fabulous virus, so i have been unable to dump the camera memory card onto the computer. the laptop has become my usual electronic tool, but it is still missing both shift keys and one other thanks to our lovely babyzilla. so that explains the lack of pictures and super fun stuff from us the last little while. lately i have been thinking i should do a post about each of my boy's favorite things, so here ya go.

AMMON
p.e. at school
math homework
macaroni and cheese with hotdog slices and frozen peas stirred in
his ds grammy got him for christmas
reading, especially the scriptures
helping mom with whatever she needs - which i really really appreciate
having his friends come over to play after school

ZENOCK
park days with the kids from church
pizza
getting on the counter so he can 'help' with whatever i am doing in the kitchen
watching spy kids, toy story, and cars 2
anything relating to transformers, pretend or real
toast and chocolate milk
playing with his friends whenever he can - which according to him should be every day
going with mom or dad to get ammon from school


GIDEON
eating anything we will let him as long as he can sit in the highchair and feed himself
getting into anything and everything he can
opening and shutting the cupboards and drawers in the kitchen
cleaning out the shelves in the tv cabinet
playing with doors
climbing on his brothers
playing with mom's hair while sucking his thumb and cuddling
smiling with a really cute scrunchy face, especially when the camera is out
saying daddadadadadada over and over all day long - it's even better when we say it with him

gideon's birthday was two saturday's ago. he started taking steps about 2 weeks before his birthday, but he hasn't done any more than 5 or 6 at a time that i have seen. he does practice a lot during the day though, and he does a great job standing up by himself from a sitting position. i discovered the other day that he is cutting all 4 12 month molars. this means he has a nasty cold/cough, an occasional fever, yucky diapers, and he is sleeping super crappy. i don't know why most of these things only appear when he is teething. the two top molars have broken through on one corner, so those shouldn't be bothering him much now - i think. both brady and i are looking forward to when all 4 teeth are in all the way because he can start eating more things besides soft foods like chicken nuggets and small chunks of canned fruits/veggies. but he does eat really well now, even with just his cute little front teeth - he has 7 of those.

m&m cookies

this recipe i have had since i did a cooking class in high school. since then - 12 years ago - i have made this recipe maybe 2 times, and it's because i NEVER keep a bag of m&m's around long enough to make a whole batch of cookies with them. and then we found old halloween candy on clearance when buying stocking stuffer candy..........so yeah, i have about a gallon and a half of the stuff in my pantry now.

3/4 cup sugar
1 cup brown sugar
1 cup butter or shortening
1 tablespoon vanilla
2 eggs
3 cups flour
3/4 teaspoon baking powder
3/4 teaspoon salt
2 cups chocolate candies of your choice

preheat oven to 350. cream the butter and sugars until, well, smooth and creamy. add vanilla and eggs. mix well. add flour, powder and salt. mix until nice dough forms. it should start clearing away from the sides of the bowl. throw in those candies.
scoop out onto a cookie by the tablespoon full or however big you want the cookies to be and cook them for about 10 minutes.

this time the cookies didn't spread hardly at all so if you want you can squish them down some with a cup or use a little less flour so they spread more while baking. i made this two days ago, and with my cookie scoop i made over 4 dozen cookies, but they were small.